What are the clinical manifestations of acute hepatitis?

There are many types of acute hepatitis. The most common is acute viral hepatitis, followed by alcoholic hepatitis and acute hepatitis B. The causes of the disease are complex and not easy to treat. Therefore, it is recommended that everyone get more rest and take good liver protection measures in daily life. Of course, in order to help everyone understand acute hepatitis more clearly, the following is a systematic introduction to the clinical manifestations of acute hepatitis.

1. Acute icteric hepatitis

(1) Pre-jaundice: The disease usually starts slowly, with mild fever or no fever, and joint pain and rash are common. Common symptoms include fatigue, loss of appetite, aversion to greasy foods, nausea, vomiting, and sometimes abdominal pain and diarrhea. This phase lasts an average of 5-7 days.

(2) Jaundice stage: The fever subsides, the subjective symptoms are slightly alleviated, and jaundice appears on the sclera and skin, reaching a peak within a few days to 3 weeks. Dark yellow urine may cause transient lighter stools. Pain in the liver area, enlarged liver, soft texture, tenderness and percussion pain. This phase lasts 2-6 days.

(3) Recovery period: The patient's jaundice gradually decreases and disappears, the stool color returns to normal, the skin itching disappears, the appetite improves, the physical strength recovers, the gastrointestinal symptoms are alleviated, the jaundice disappears, and the liver function returns to normal. This period is generally 1-2 months.

2. Acute anicteric hepatitis

This type is more common and has milder symptoms, including general fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea, and abdominal distension. Physical signs include enlarged liver, soft texture, tenderness and percussion pain. This type of hepatitis has mild symptoms and is often overlooked. The course of the disease is about 2-3 months. Sometimes the severity of symptoms or signs varies depending on the severity of the disease.

Acute severe hepatitis, also known as fulminant hepatitis. The clinical features are acute onset, with impaired consciousness, bleeding, jaundice and liver shrinkage within 10 days. The duration of illness does not exceed 3 weeks. The early clinical manifestations of fulminant hepatitis are similar to those of acute icteric hepatitis, but the disease progresses rapidly. Therefore, if the following symptoms appear, a severe diagnosis should be considered.

(1) Obvious symptoms of systemic poisoning. As the jaundice progresses, the patient becomes extremely weak, listless, drowsy or insomniac, has personality changes, mental abnormalities, impaired calculation and orientation, asterixis, and impaired consciousness.

(2) Severe gastrointestinal symptoms, including a significant loss of appetite, even anorexia, frequent nausea, vomiting, and severe abdominal distension.

(3) Jaundice progressively worsens, with serum total bilirubin rising to over 171 μmol/L within a few days, while serum alanine aminotransferase decreases or even returns to normal, indicating bile-enzyme dissociation. In a small number of patients, the disease progresses rapidly and they develop impaired consciousness before jaundice becomes obvious.

(4) The liver or liver dullness progressively shrinks, and ascites rapidly appears within a few days of onset. Liver CT and B-ultrasound examinations showed liver atrophy. When the above situation occurs, the condition is very serious. If not treated actively, the mortality rate is extremely high.

The general pathological changes of acute hepatitis are as follows: macroscopically, the liver is enlarged, soft in texture, and has a smooth surface. Especially if you suffer from acute hepatitis, you must pay attention to it to avoid inducing other diseases, such as cholecystitis, myocarditis, gastroenteritis, etc. Especially in the above article we have seen the clinical symptoms of acute hepatitis, which I believe will be helpful in treating this disease.