How to treat ascites in advanced liver cancer

Ascites treatment is actually a treatment method for advanced liver cancer. When choosing a treatment method, the doctor will base it on the patient's physical condition. The ascites treatment method can also have good therapeutic effects, and it can be combined with traditional Chinese medicine if necessary.

Controlling the primary lesion is the key to treating ascites caused by liver cancer. When treating ascites, attention should be paid to the treatment of the primary liver cancer. Only simultaneous treatment can inhibit the regeneration of accumulated water. The first focus should be on draining the ascites. By draining ascites, the patient's symptoms can be quickly improved, but it is easy to relapse and the treatment is not complete. Clinically, while draining ascites, some addictive drugs, such as anticancer drugs, sclerosants, immunomodulators, etc., are infused into the chest cavity to directly kill cancer cells and slow down the production of ascites in liver cancer. However, the treatment effect of this type of liver cancer ascites is poor, and it will bring great toxic side effects to patients, and it only treats the symptoms but not the root cause. Therefore, clinical practice often advocates a combined treatment plan of combined surgery, chemotherapy or autologous immune cell therapy.

1. Ascites reinfusion therapy: For the late stage of ascites in cirrhosis, special devices are used to extract the ascites, process and concentrate it, and then infuse it into the patient. The advantage is that it overcomes the situation of protein loss caused by simply draining the peritoneum. The disadvantage is that the late-stage symptoms of ascites in cirrhosis will lead to multiple abdominal punctures, increasing the chance of infection and making bacterial peritonitis more likely to occur. Treatment of small amount of ascites: In the late stage of ascites due to cirrhosis, pay attention to bed rest and low-salt diet.

For patients with late-stage ascites due to cirrhosis, water intake should be appropriately limited (approximately 1 to 1.5 L per day). Proper nutrition should be maintained, liver protection treatment should be strengthened, liver function, kidney function and blood electrolytes should be checked regularly, and for those with hypoproteinemia, appropriate amounts of albumin and plasma should be supplemented to eliminate some of the ascites.

2. Drug treatment for late-stage ascites: For patients with late-stage ascites due to cirrhosis who have not responded to measures such as rest and salt restriction, consideration should be given to the use of a combination of Chinese and Western medicine for treatment. In Western medicine treatment, it can promote the excretion of water and sodium, reduce ascites, inhibit the kidney's absorption of sodium and chloride, and excrete potassium at the same time. At present, in the treatment of ascites in late-stage liver cirrhosis, it is advocated to use a combination of Chinese and Western medicine and internal conditioning treatment to fundamentally eliminate the inducing factors of ascites, thereby playing a comprehensive prevention and treatment role. This is very beneficial to the long-term efficacy of ascites, and also greatly reduces the recurrence rate of ascites.