Complete liver failure, prognosis?!

There are many different causes of liver disease and if the cause
can be found early on and possibly stopped, the liver cells may
heal and the problem could be reversed.

Let me explain more of what takes place:
The liver cells become damaged. The immune system of
the body responds to this damage and causes inflammation
to develop inside the liver. This inflammation causes the liver
to enlarge in size (it can also cause the spleen to also enlarge).

Up to this point, in some cases the problem can be reversed.
However, if not able to do this, then it will progress to where
the liver cells start to die off and form scar tissue inside
the liver. The scar tissue blocks the flow of blood through the
liver on its way back to the heart and also blocks the flow
of blood to the functioning liver cells and they will continue
to die off. The term you are really looking for is
Cirrhosis. I have just described this disease to you in
this paragraph.

The liver cells are what does the many functions of the liver
to keep the body well. When they are damage and start
to die off and continue to die off, they can no longer do
these functions efficiently...the functions start to deteriorate.
(That is what is known as liver failure). As the liver cells
keep dying and the functions go down, the body will start
showing more signs and symptoms and the patient will
continue to become more uncomfortable.

The liver is a smooth, soft organ. If you have cooked liver
for supper, you know what it looks like. When it enlarges
in size, it takes on a spongy texture. When the scar tissue
start to develop, because the cells bunch up against the
scar tissue: this is what causes the liver to take on a
knobby appearance. When the cells start to die off,
the liver will shrink in size and become hard textured...
the liver is basically dying inside the living patient.

In the last stages of the disease, here are some of the
things the patient may encounter:
Ascites (build up of fluid in the abdominal area that can
be removed by a procedure known as paracentesis)
Encephalopathy (mental confusion, disorientation,
sleep pattern changes, hand tremors...meds like Lactulose
can be given to help this)
Portal hypertension with varies (blood backs up into the
portal vein and smaller vessels that can have weak spots
and balloon outward and break open)..Any blood in the
sputum, vomit, or rectal area is a dire Emergency.
Doctors can band these vessels to stop the bleeding
Easy Bruising and Bleeding (the liver can no longer
efficiently make clotting factors)

Here are some links that may be of help to you.
Only the doctors can give you an educated guess on how
far advance he is in this disease, what can be done about
reversing it, and how long he may have left to live. No
one else can do that. A liver biopsy is the best thing
to confirm this information.

Here are some links, to click on, to learn much more:
http://www.medicinenet.com/cirrhosis/art…
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cirrhos…
http://yourtotalhealth.ivillage.com/cirr…
http://www.uihealthcare.com/topics/medic…
http://www.texasliver.com/en/cms/139/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CirrhosisAv…
http://www.surgery.usc.edu/divisions/hep…
http://www.transplantliving.org/

Hope this information has been of some help.
Best wishes

caregiver to a liver transplant patient

Only his doctors can really give you a prognosis and you need to speak with them.
Liver failure is very serious as you well know.
The doctors should refer him to hospice if he is terminal.

PA