Obesity of the liver: causes and methods of treatment

Among all dystrophic diseases in gastroenterology, the obesity of the liver or its fatty degeneration is one of the most common. And early diagnosis of it is almost impossible in view of its low-symptom current.

Liver metabolism

The liver is the largest gland in the body. It produces a large number of substances that affect the metabolism of the whole organism. It is hepatocytes that have a significant effect on digestion in the intestine, blood coagulation. Hepatic cells produce about half of all fats. Particularly important are lipoproteins, cholesterol. The liver serves as a "storehouse" of the body's energy reserves.

Even more important, hepatocytes play in the neutralization of many substances, both produced by the body itself and coming from outside. What is carried out due to the presence of a large number of enzyme systems. Therefore cytoarchitectonics of liver cells has a high degree of organization. And the violation of one link may lead to a failure in the operation of all cells. On the other hand - the liver has enough large reserves that can eliminate violations of its work. Here we mean the ability of the body to regenerate.

Causes of hepatosis

Despite all the above, liver diseases were and remain in the top ten among other pathologies. The great importance of the organ for the organism entails and the increased loads not its functioning potential.

All causes of liver obesity are similar to those of any other dystrophy.

• Disruption of excretion of lipids from hepatocytes.
• Excess intake of lipids.
• Pathologies in various stages of fat synthesis.

These mechanisms can be observed in a number of liver pathologies and some systemic diseases of the whole organism. These are hepatitis, obesity( both nutritional and metabolic), lack of vitamins and biliary tract diseases. As a result, lipids begin to be deposited in the cytoplasm of hepatocytes. Gradually, this leads to cell death. Its cavity becomes a storehouse of fats, and adjacent cells become susceptible to fatty hepatosis due to reflex mechanisms.

This is important! The duration of the course of hepatosis, its gradualness, lead to the development of the erasure of the clinical picture. Because of what the obesity of the liver often does not have symptoms. Its detection often occurs when examining for other pathologies.

Clinic

Almost always the development of fatty hepatosis is hidden. Since the processes of replacement of the hepatic tissue are relatively slow, and the compensatory capacity of the liver can long maintain the functioning of the body at the proper level.

As the pathology progresses, the patient has pain in the right upper quadrant. They are associated with overgrowth of the liver capsule. Pain blunt not intense. In the presence of pathologies of the gallbladder have a clear connection with food intake.

The defeat of at least a third of all hepatocytes leads to metabolic disorders at various levels. This results in a decrease in the detoxification capacity of the liver. In addition to pain in the hypochondrium, the patient has nausea, up to vomiting. Disturbance of bilirubin metabolism leads to an increase in its content in the blood( largely due to the free fraction), which is expressed in jaundice: icteric sclera and skin, itchy skin.

The death of more than 2/3 of the hepatic cells is manifested by signs of cirrhosis. The patient is lean, icterous, with a tendency to ascites - an increase in the abdomen due to the accumulation of free fluid in the abdominal cavity.

Diagnosis and treatment of

Detection of fatty hepatosis is possible with any visualization method. This ultrasound, tomography and radionuclide diagnosis. Among all these methods of diagnosis, only ultrasound refers to the so-called routine method and is performed more often than others with regard to diseases of the abdominal cavity in general. But its resolving power and the technique of obtaining the result do not give unambiguous data on the fatty degeneration of the liver. Most often in the first stages, all changes are classified as expressed diffuse liver changes. Only the method of tomography and radionuclide study allow in more detail even at early stages of pathology to reveal the development of pathological tissues.

Establishing a cause fundamentally affects what to treat obesity of the liver. With viral hepatitis, antiviral therapy is the cornerstone. In the case of metabolic diseases, their correction is necessary. Diseases of the bile ducts mean that the therapy of fatty hepatosis should begin with the normalization of the outflow of bile.

In any pathology, treatment of obesity of the liver should follow the following general principles of reducing the load on the organ. For which the patient is transferred to a special diet. Similarly, patients should receive hepatoprotective agents.

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