What are the symptoms of late stage liver disease?

Late-stage liver disease can be said to seriously threaten the patient's life, especially for patients with late-stage liver disease, who will show adverse effects such as pain in the liver area, liver enlargement or jaundice. As a patient with liver disease, early detection and early treatment are necessary.

1. Pain in the liver area

More than half of patients with advanced liver cancer experience pain in the liver area, which is equivalent to the location of the tumor and is mostly persistent or dull pain. Liver pain is caused by the rapid growth of the tumor, which causes the liver capsule to be stretched. If the lesion invades the diaphragm, the pain may involve the right shoulder. When a cancerous nodule ruptures, it may suddenly cause severe pain and symptoms and signs of peritonitis. If the amount of bleeding is large, it will cause syncope and shock.

2. Hepatomegaly

More than 90% of liver cancer patients have enlarged livers, which are progressive, hard, uneven, with nodules or lumps of varying sizes, blunt and irregular edges, and often varying degrees of tenderness. When liver cancer protrudes under the right costal arch or xiphoid process, the upper abdomen may appear locally bulging or full. If the tumor is located on the diaphragmatic surface, the main manifestation is the elevation of the diaphragm while the lower edge of the liver may not be enlarged. Because the arteries of liver cancer are rich and tortuous, or because the huge tumor compresses the hepatic artery or abdominal aorta, the inner diameter of the artery suddenly narrows, and sometimes a blowing-like vascular murmur can be heard on the abdominal wall close to the tumor.

3. Jaundice

It usually occurs in the late stage of liver cancer and may be caused by liver cell damage, or by compression or invasion of the bile duct near the liver portal by the cancer mass, or by bile duct obstruction caused by the detachment of cancer tissue and blood clots.

4. Signs of cirrhosis

Patients with liver cancer and portal hypertension accompanied by cirrhosis may have symptoms such as splenomegaly, ascites, and formation of venous collateral circulation. The ascites increases rapidly, usually as transudate. Bloody ascites is mostly caused by cancer invading the liver capsule or rupturing into the abdominal cavity, and occasionally by peritoneal metastasis.