Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.
What Is Liver Failure?
When a patient suffers liver failure, the liver has suffered so much damage that it can no longer repair its damaged cells. When the liver no longer functions, the patient can be in danger of dying.
Acute or Chronic Liver Failure
The most common liver failure is chronic liver failure, which occurs over many months or years. The most common causes are hepatitis B, hepatitis C, long-term alcohol abuse, cirrhosis and malnutrition.
Acute liver failure can cause a patient to be healthy one day, but gravely ill 48 hours later. Among the main causes are an acetaminophen (Tylenol) overdose; viruses hepatitis A, B and C; reactions to prescriptions or herbal remedies; eating poisonous wild mushrooms.
A symptom of advanced failure of the liver is hepatic encephalopathy, a variety of neuropsychiatric abnormalities in the brains of patients.
Symptoms of Liver Failure
The first symptoms of liver failure are the same as symptoms to many maladies, making the diagnosis difficult initially. The patient might suffer from nausea, a loss of appetite, fatigue and diarrhea.
Advanced symptoms of liver failure include jaundice, bleeding easily, a swollen abdomen, mental disorientation or confusion, sleepiness, and even drifting into a coma. Patients have a tendency to bruise and bleed very easily with advanced liver failure.
A person with chronic liver failure might have such a gradual downhill slide in health that a serious occurrence such as vomiting blood or having bloody diarrhea is the big wakeup call. Some causes of this include varicose veins in the stomach and an esophagus that bleeds.
The American Liver Foundation says it is best to diagnose liver failure in the early stages of inflammation and fibrosis, which is the onset of scar tissue taking over the liver.
Course of Treatment
After liver failure is confirmed through blood tests to measure the liver’s functionality, the patient will be treated for the cause of the malady. Many patients are placed on a diet that consists of low amounts of animal protein, low sodium and no alcohol. For patients suffering liver failure, too much animal protein has been known to interfere with brain functionality. Soy and other vegetable-based proteins can substitute.
With acute liver failure, the patient must be treated quickly or else bleeding may become out of control. Most patients with acute liver failure are placed in the intensive care unit of a hospital where they are treated with IV fluids and medications to lower blood pressure if it has become dangerously high. Additionally, laxatives and antibiotics to treat hepatic encephalopathy may be prescribed.
In cases of extreme blood loss, the patient may undergo blood transfusions. Oftentimes, only blood plasma is given because it’s the blood component that induces blood clotting.
According to the American Liver Foundation, when a patient has end-stage liver disease, the liver failure has progressed to the point that the only medical intervention than can help is to receive a liver transplant.
Legal Issues Surrounding Liver Failure and Amiodarone
Amiodarone, a drug taken to control certain types of irregular heartbeat, is among the medications associated with an increased risk of liver failure. Sold under brand names Cordarone, Pacerone and Nexterone, amiodarone has a specific warning from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that the medication can cause hepatotoxicity (liver failure) that can be fatal.
Patients who have suffered liver failure because of drug toxicity, such as that seen with amiodarone, could be eligible for compensation through legal action.
