What is liver fibrosis and what are the dangers

Very few people know about the disease of liver fibrosis. Even patients suffering from liver fibrosis are not very clear about what they need to pay attention to in their daily lives, what harm this disease will eventually bring to them, etc. Some bad habits in our daily life will aggravate liver fibrosis, so patients should have sufficient knowledge about this disease.

What is liver fibrosis?

Liver fibrosis refers to the abnormal proliferation of fibrous connective tissue in the liver, which is mostly the result of persistent liver damage. In layman's terms, just like when our skin is injured, scars are formed, after the liver suffers continuous damage, normal liver cells will be replaced by "scars", forming liver fibrosis.

Although liver fibrosis does not threaten people's lives, if it is not taken seriously and treated in the early stages of the disease, once it develops into cirrhosis, the condition will be irreversible. It can be said that liver fibrosis is the bottom line of liver disease. Therefore, liver fibrosis must attract special attention.

What is liver fibrosis?

First of all, if a human body suffers from acute hepatitis, a certain amount of fibrosis will form after the liver inflammation recovers. However, acute liver damage lasts for a short time and recovers quickly, leaving no trace after a few years. However, when chronic hepatitis occurs in the human body, the situation is different. Liver inflammation keeps occurring; once it is repaired here, it reappears there. Long-term and repeated inflammation causes the liver fibrosis to increase continuously and the scars to become larger and larger until the degree of liver fibrosis becomes more and more serious and cirrhosis forms.

Secondly, fibrous tissue can be divided into old and tender. Type III fibers in fibrous tissue are tender fibers, while type I and type IV fibers are old fibers. Therefore, when liver inflammation stops, the tender type III fibers will slowly dissipate, while the old type I and type IV fibers will settle down.

Finally, as a repair reaction, human fiber proliferation should be in a balanced state under normal circumstances, that is, the amount of fiber proliferation is equal to the amount of fiber decomposition. Once the liver fibrosis proliferates excessively and exceeds the ability to decompose fibrosis, or the ability to decompose fibrosis decreases and cannot meet the requirements of fibrosis proliferation, liver fibrosis will be deposited. Since the fibers are collagenous substances and are deposited in the liver like a net, it is figuratively called liver fibrosis.

Is liver fibrosis serious?

1. Liver fibrosis can lead to the destruction of liver tissue structure, causing compression, twisting and closure of intrahepatic blood vessels, short-circuiting anastomosis between the liver artery and vein, increasing the resistance of the portal vein system blood vessels, and thus forming portal hypertension.

2. Portal hypertension can lead to splenomegaly, ascites formation and esophageal varices at the gastric fundus, and there is also a potential risk of varicose vein rupture and bleeding in the upper gastrointestinal tract.

3. Liver fibrosis may be complicated by other diseases. Liver fibrosis is prone to complications of the following diseases:

Infectious diseases such as chronic viral hepatitis B, C and D, schistosomiasis, etc.

Inborn errors of metabolism such as Wilson's disease, hemochromatosis, α1-antitrypsin deficiency, etc.

Chemical toxic diseases such as chronic alcoholic liver disease, chronic drug-induced liver disease; diseases such as primary autoimmune hepatitis, biliary cirrhosis, primary cholangitis, and sclerosing cholangitis.

4. Liver fibrosis is an inevitable stage in the formation of cirrhosis and liver cancer.

Liver fibrosis is not an independent disease, but a necessary step to develop into liver cirrhosis. If patients with liver fibrosis do not receive timely treatment, they are likely to develop cirrhosis or liver cancer, which will not only make treatment more difficult but also threaten the patient's life.

5. Liver fibrosis can cause liver failure. Liver fibrosis can cause circulatory disorders in the blood microcirculation channels between normal liver cells due to the deposition of fibrous tissue components, thereby affecting the blood supply to liver cells, making it difficult to repair liver cells damaged by inflammation, and even aggravating the damage, until there are fewer and fewer normally functioning liver cells in the human body, and finally developing into liver failure.