Acute icteric hepatitis

When it comes to hepatitis, many people may panic because they have contracted hepatitis due to excessive drinking or other reasons, which has caused various health problems. In fact, hepatitis is closely related to our lives, because we have been vaccinated with hepatitis B vaccine when we were children in order to prevent our bodies from being infected with hepatitis. Hepatitis can be divided into two types: acute hepatitis and chronic hepatitis.

The symptoms of acute hepatitis and chronic hepatitis have many similarities, but there are also many different manifestations. There are many types of acute hepatitis, such as acute icteric hepatitis. Let’s take a detailed look at acute icteric hepatitis.

Acute icteric hepatitis is a clinical classification of acute hepatitis. Depending on whether the patient has jaundice and whether the serum bilirubin is elevated, acute hepatitis is divided into acute icteric hepatitis and acute non-icteric hepatitis. The diagnosis of acute icteric hepatitis is based on clinical symptoms rather than etiology. Hepatitis A, B, C, D and E are all types of hepatitis viruses that can cause this type of hepatitis. Hepatitis A is the most common, followed by hepatitis E.

The clinical manifestations of acute icteric hepatitis can be divided into three stages according to the course of the disease, with a total course of 2 to 4 months:

1. Early stage of jaundice

There are non-specific prodromal symptoms, low-grade fever corresponding to transient viremia, and joint pain, which are often misdiagnosed as upper respiratory tract infection. At the same time, there is discomfort and fatigue, and the prominent symptoms are loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting. Extrahepatic lesions and serum sickness-like syndrome may occur in the early stages of jaundice: joint pain and arthritis, urticaria and angioedema, vasculitic lesions, kidney lesions, purpura, serous membrane inflammation, myocarditis, pancreatitis, etc. It has been described in detail in the literature, but is rare in patients in my country. The severity and duration of the early symptoms of jaundice can vary greatly, ranging from a few days to 2 weeks. There may also be no obvious pre-jaundice phase, with jaundice being the earliest symptom.

2. Jaundice stage

The initial finding is often yellow urine, reflecting elevated direct serum bilirubin concentrations; this is followed by jaundice of the sclera and skin and lighter stool color. Jaundice reaches its peak within 1 to 2 weeks, at which time the fever usually subsides and gastrointestinal symptoms improve significantly. An improved appetite is a common sign that the disease is beginning to improve from its peak. The liver is slightly enlarged, soft, tender and percussion-tender. In a small number of patients, the spleen can be felt under the ribs. Vascular spider nevi may appear transiently. The disappearance of jaundice is much slower than its onset, and the entire jaundice period lasts 1 to 6 weeks.

3. Recovery period

As the jaundice subsided, the symptoms gradually improved. Serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) gradually decreases, and the decrease in bilirubin in acute hepatitis B often occurs earlier than the return to normal of alanine aminotransferase (ALT). The vast majority of patients recover within 3 to 4 months. Children recover faster from acute hepatitis B than adults. During the recovery period, patients may still feel tired and unwell. After clinical and serological recovery, liver tissue lesions are alleviated, but full recovery requires half a year.

Through understanding of acute icteric hepatitis, friends should have certain ideas in their minds. When you or your family and friends accidentally suffer from acute jaundice hepatitis, you can take the most timely and correct treatment methods. This will not only cure acute jaundice hepatitis as soon as possible and minimize the harm to your body, but also make our body and mind less worried. A cheerful mood is more conducive to physical health.