portal hypertension, acute liver failure and hepatic encephalopathy and complications of liver cirrhosis. i ll have to explain the blood circulation on the liver to make it clear. our liver has 2 blood supply and 1 outlet. the outlet is the vena cava. if you have cirrhosis. the liver is less permeable to blood. which means the blood do not easily pass. if thats the case your pressure will increases because of the constant supply but decrease in outflow. causing portal hypertension. hepatic encephalopathy is caused by increase in ammonia. a product of our body s metabolism.which means waste. too much ammonia will be toxic to the brain. with the liver not functioning properly the body cannot metabolize ammonia. causing ammonia build up affecting our brain. causing swelling or encephalopathy. acute liver failure means malfunction of the liver. non functioning liver. thats very fatal.
Hepatic encephalopathy occurs because the liver cells are damaged and may have died off..therefore the liver cells are not able to do the functions they once did. The body uses protein all the time, the by product after the protein is used, is known as ammonia. The liver usually removes this ammonia and converts it into a non toxic form known as urea. The kidneys then filter this urea and it is removed from the body in our urine. What happens is that since the liver is now damaged, it isn t able to do this appropriately anymore... so the ammonia stays in the blood and builds up. The ammonia can go pass the blood brain barrier then and into the brain and cause mental problems... unclear thinking, confusion, sleep pattern changes, etc. Hepatitis is the inflammation of the liver cells. It has a number of different causes. If the cause of the inflammation is not stopped and the inflammation is not treated... it can lead to death of the liver cells and then scar tissue forming inside the liver itself. This scar tissue blocks the flow of blood through the liver. This is known as liver Cirrhosis. Since the blood doesn t flow well through the liver, even though the cells of the liver try to regenerate...the cells continually die off which leads to having a liver transplant. There is a vein under the liver and that goes into the liver, know as the Portal Vein. This collects the blood from all the abdomen. Since the liver is damaged, the blood can no longer go through the liver appropriately. It backs up into the portal vein and this builds up pressure. That is why it is called Portal hyper (higher) tension. Now the blood has to go around the liver to get back to the heart. It backs up into smaller veins not used to handling this amount of blood. These lead to the spleen, esophagus, rectum, and belly button area. These vessels are weaker and can thin in places. If the thinning occurs, they can balloon outward and break open very easily and the patient could bleed internally or bleed out completely if they are not banded or treated. The spleen, because the blood backs up into it...can also enlarge like the liver has. When a person is diagnosed as having inflammation of the liver cells that leads to cirrhosis...they are considered in acute liver failure. The closer they get to where the cells are dying off in the liver, they are considered in liver failure (liver failure means that the liver is losing the ability to do the functions it once did). Complete liver failure is when the liver can no longer to any functions well enough to help the body in anyway and it won t be long till the patient will pass away. I hope this helps you to understand about the difference now.
You ask for differentiation. These are lab diagnoses although if the conditions are extreme there is jaundice, caput medusae and other signs and symptoms.
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