The liver has a unique capacity among organs to regenerate itself after damage. A liver can regrow to a normal size even after up to 90% of it has been removed.
Myth: I might have cirrhosis, but the liver will regenerate and heal itself naturally. Fact: The liver is a highly regenerative organ but only if it's still healthy enough to do so and doesn't have extensive scar tissue. Once cirrhosis is present, your liver's regeneration becomes very limited.
Healing can begin as early as a few days to weeks after you stop drinking, but if the damage is severe, healing can take several months. In some cases, “if the damage to the liver has been long-term, it may not be reversible,” warns Dr. Stein.
Cirrhosis has become irreversible. Diagnosed at stage 3, the 1-year survival rate is 80%. It's during stage 3 that a liver transplant may be recommended. There's always a risk a person's body will reject the transplant, but if accepted, 80% of transplant patients survive more than 5 years past their operation.
The treatment for cirrhosis depends on what has caused it. Cirrhosis cannot usually be cured, but there are ways to manage the symptoms and any complications, and stop the condition getting worse.
There's no cure for cirrhosis at the moment. However, there are ways to manage the symptoms and any complications and slow its progression. Treating the problem that led to cirrhosis (for example, using anti-viral medicines to treat hepatitis C) can stop cirrhosis getting worse.
Liver transplant surgery
In advanced cases of cirrhosis, when the liver ceases to function, a liver transplant may be the only treatment option. A liver transplant is a procedure to replace your liver with a healthy liver from a deceased donor or with part of a liver from a living donor.
If you have a more serious form of ARLD – alcoholic hepatitis or cirrhosis – life-long abstinence is recommended. This is because stopping drinking is the only way to prevent your liver damage getting worse and potentially stop you dying of liver disease.
Stage 3: Cirrhosis
Cirrhosis refers to severe, irreversible scarring of the liver.
When a patient's liver disease reaches cirrhosis, a stage when the liver damage can no longer be reversed, it becomes a terminal diagnosis. Unlike most terminal illnesses, a cure may be available for some patients through a liver transplant.
The liver damage done by cirrhosis generally can't be undone. But if liver cirrhosis is diagnosed early and the cause is treated, further damage can be limited and, rarely, reversed.
According to the VA, although cirrhosis is progressive, some people with the condition can move from decompensated, or symptomatic, back to the asymptomatic stage. This is a challenging process, although one of the critical steps is avoiding alcohol of any kind.
As the liver attempts to repair itself, after alcohol abuse, scar tissue forms. Over time, this scarring within the liver can lead to decreased liver function. Once the liver has been damaged by cirrhosis, this damage cannot be undone. Any use of alcohol will only damage the liver further.
"Hard liquor contains more alcohol than beer or wine, making it more dangerous for your liver," continues Coleman. "A single shot of 80-proof hard liquor contains about 15 grams of alcohol and most shots contain even more alcohol than this." Another alcoholic beverage also takes a considerable toll on your liver.
Heavy drinkers and alcoholics may progress from fatty liver to alcoholic hepatitis to cirrhosis, and it is estimated that 10 percent to 15 percent of alcoholics will develop cirrhosis.
Mild cirrhosis may not cause any symptoms at all. Symptoms may include: Fluid buildup in the belly (ascites) Vomiting blood, often from bleeding in the blood vessels in the food pipe (esophagus)
It takes upwards of ten years for alcohol-related liver disease to progress from fatty liver through fibrosis to cirrhosis to acute on chronic liver failure. This process is silent and symptom free and can easily be missed in primary care, usually presenting with advanced cirrhosis.
This can lead to liver failure. Usually the damage cannot be reversed. Between 10 to 20 percent of heavy drinkers develop cirrhosis typically after 10 or more years of drinking.
Do all alcoholics get alcoholic hepatitis and eventually cirrhosis? No. Some alcoholics may suffer seriously from the many physical and psychological symptoms of alcoholism, but escape serious liver damage. Alcoholic cirrhosis is found among alcoholics about 10 to 25 percent of the time.
Long-term intake of more than 30 g of absolute alcohol per day increases the risk of alcoholic liver disease; liver disease is nearly certain in long-term consumption in excess of 80 g of absolute alcohol per day.
The main treatment for primary biliary cirrhosis is to slow liver damage with the drug ursodiol (Actigall, Urso).
Although the overall leading cause of death in patients with cirrhosis is liver-related, the most common causes of mortality in patients with NAFLD cirrhosis is non-hepatic malignancy, cerebrovascular disease, and diabetes.
Patients with compensated cirrhosis have a median survival that may extend beyond 12 years. Patients with decompensated cirrhosis have a worse prognosis than do those with compensated cirrhosis; the average survival without transplantation is approximately two years [13,14].
Major complications of cirrhosis include ascites, spontaneous bacterial peritonitis, hepatic encephalopathy, portal hypertension, variceal bleeding, and hepatorenal syndrome.
Ascites is the most common complication of cirrhosis[7]. It is also the most common complication that leads to hospital admission[29].