With cirrhosis of the liver, there is a chance to cope in the early stages if the cause is eliminated in time. Maria Prashnova, a gastroenterologist, hepatologist, associate professor at St. Petersburg State University, head of the EXPERT clinic, told socialbites.ca about this.
Cirrhosis is a non-specific descriptive term equivalent to “sclerosis”, “fibrosis” or simply “scarring”. It bears witness to a past history of tissue destruction. As long as we are talking about fibrosis, which has not yet radically changed the structure of the liver tissue, the process is theoretically reversible. But for this you need to find the cause that caused it and eliminate it. Or having the means to influence the pathological progression of a particular disease,” he explained.
Thus, in primary biliary cholangitis (an autoimmune liver disease), aggressive immunity cannot be eliminated, but ursodeoxycholic acid therapy can slow the disease and the patient’s life expectancy will be the same as the population average.
The connective tissue does not do the work of the liver cells, but up to a certain point the remaining hepatocytes can do their job. This condition is called compensated cirrhosis, where a person can live for an average of about 12 years. But without treatment, at some point the process becomes irreversible, the remaining cells can no longer work “for themselves and a friend.” Decompensation begins, liver failure develops. And with decompensation, life expectancy decreases sharply, and even against the background of drug therapy, it is an average of two years, ”Prashnova added.
Find out more about what liver diseases threaten Russians and whether it is possible to live with a healthy liver until old age – in material “socialbites.ca”.