The liver is an essential organ, responsible for a multitude of metabolic functions. Mild liver damage can be without symptoms. More extensive damage leads to a variety of symptoms, including jaundice, low blood sugar, malaise, nausea and death---if the damage is severe enough. Liver damage from different causes can lead to similar symptoms. Damage can be acute or chronic, mild or severe. Inflammation of the liver, known as hepatitis, and fatty liver disease can lead to cirrhosis and in some cases to fulminant liver failure.
Viral Hepatitis
Hepatitis A, a highly infectious viral illness, is usually spread via contaminated food and water. Hepatitis A is most often a self-limiting disease, though it can be more severe in people who already have liver disease from other causes. Hepatitis B, as MayoClinic.com explains, is a much more serious disease that can lead to chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis and cancer. Hepatitis B is spread through unprotected sex, accidental needle sticks, needle sharing among IV drug users and by transmission from a mother to her baby during birth. Hepatitis C, which can be transmitted through infected blood during drug use, can lead to cirrhosis, cancer of the liver and liver failure. Symptoms of Hepatitis C can appear many years after infection.
Alcoholic Liver Damage
Prolonged and heavy alcohol use can lead to hepatitis; fatty liver; and cirrhosis, which is scarring of the liver. Whether alcohol will damage the liver depends on many factors, including gender, genetic susceptibility and the presence of other causes for liver disease. According to the Cleveland Clinic website, 20 percent of heavy drinkers will develop hepatitis and 25 percent will develop cirrhosis. Drinking cessation can reverse some of the symptoms of hepatitis. Once the liver is cirrhotic, though, drinking cessation has less of a beneficial effect.
Toxic Hepatitis
Toxic hepatitis can develop rapidly, sometimes within hours. Sometimes it develops after long-term ingestion of a toxic substance. Amanita mushrooms, as explained by AmericanMushroom.com, can cause extensive liver damage and lead to death within 24 hours. Liver damage from halothane, a widely used anesthetic, tends to occur more often in women, and the risk increases after repeated use, as MayoClinic.com explains. Statins, which are widely used to treat high cholesterol, can damage the liver. Antiseizure medications such as valproic acid and phenytoin can cause liver failure. Other medications that can damage the liver include anabolic steroids and many types of antibiotics. Industrial chemicals, such as carbon tetrahydrochloride, which is used in dry cleaning, and paraquat, an herbicide, are common causes of liver damage.
References
- Mayo Clinic: Hepatitis A
- Mayo Clinic: Hepatitis B
- "Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, 17th Edition"; Antoni Fauci (ed); 2008
- Cleveland Clinic: Alcoholic Liver Disease
- Mayo Clinic: Toxic Hepatitis
