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Chronic Liver Failure Research Paper

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Chronic Liver Failure
Alcohol Abuse & Cirrhosis
Alcohol abuse is one of the most common causes of cirrhosis, and one of the leading causes of severe liver damage worldwide (Doig & Huether, 2010). It is interesting to note that alcoholic cirrhosis is responsible for 50-70% of all underlying liver pathologies in ACLF in the Western countries and only 15% in Asian countries (Kim & Kim, 2013). Strong alcohol odor, significantly high blood alcohol levels, lethargy, peripheral edema, ascites and abnormal protein levels are all signs of a patient’s chronic alcohol abuse.
Alcohol is a potent hepatotoxin (Park et al., 2014). Liver has an essential function of de-toxifying alcohol and its toxic products. Two enzymes, alcohol dehydrogenase and aldehyde …show more content…
One of the roles of the healthy spleen is to filter old red blood cells from the circulation through erythrophagocytosis. Macrophages of a pathologically enlarged spleen begin to filter not only old red blood cells but also young or nonsenescent ones from the circulation. This process results in decreased levels of RBCs, platelets and white blood cells (Gottlieb et al., 2012). Splenic sequestration, reduced production of thrombopoetin, and bone marrow suppres-sion are believed to be involved in the development of anemia, thrombocytopenia and leukopenia (Qamar & Grace, …show more content…
Low thiamine levels can be a result of malnutrition, decreased hepatic storage or impairment of intestinal absorption by etha-nol. When thiamin levels fall too low not enough energy is produced for brain cells to function properly. As a result, serious neurologic disorder, Wernicke’s encephalopathy occurs (Campillo, 2010). Wernicke’s encephalopathy is a medical emergency which involves “neuronal loss, micro-hemorrhages, and gliosis in the paraventricular peri-aqueductal grey matter and in the mammillary bodies” (Thompson et al., 2009, p.22????). However, the beginning stage of Wernicke’s encephalopathy, which is the acute thiamine deficiency, can generally be reversed with large doses of thiamine. If the treatment is not given on time, permanent brain tissue damage, resulting in Korsakoff syndrome occurs (Campillo,

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