How Long Can You Live With End Stage Liver Disease
What is End-Stage Liver Disease?
Posted on Tuesday Oct 29, 2019 in Hospice Education
Patients and families often enquire, "what is end-stage liver disease?" It's a practiced question given that end-phase liver illness is a term that covers an array of different conditions that affect the liver. This includes nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, liver cancer, booze-related liver illness, hepatitis B or C and other illnesses, infections, and diseases that affect the liver and bile ducts. When a patient's liver disease reaches cirrhosis, a stage when the liver impairment 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. While liver transplants for eligible patients have a high success rate, the wait list is long. Unfortunately, considering of the eligibility requirements and long wait, only a fraction of patients with liver illness will receive a transplant. Despite this disappointing news, there is all the same back up available to manage symptoms and control pain in patients with end-stage liver disease.
Symptoms of Stop-Stage Liver Illness
In the earliest stage of liver disease, the liver becomes inflamed. The patient may non fifty-fifty be aware of the inflammation, only left untreated, the inflammation will begin to scar, compromising the office of the liver. Liver inflammation and scarring (too known as fibrosis) can exist reversed with proper treatment. Without proper treatment, the damaged liver will progress to cirrhosis.
Common symptoms of cirrhosis include:
- Loss of appetite
- Weakness
- Fatigue
- Nausea/Vomiting
- Abdominal pain/bloating
- Itching
Once a patient is diagnosed with cirrhosis, it can no longer be cured. The focus of treatment changes to stopping the condition from worsening and slowing the disease progression. If the affliction worsens to the betoken of terminate-stage liver disease, the patient volition experience symptoms that include:
- Jaundice – yellowing of the pare and eyes caused when the liver is not able to rid the body of bilirubin.
- Increased risk of internal bleeding – patients may have black stool from internal bleeding or they may vomit blood.
- Buildup of fluid in the belly – acquired by high pressure in the liver's veins, fluid will leak into the abdomen and legs.
- Confusion – reduced brain function due to high levels of toxic substances in the body that the compromised liver can no longer process.
How Palliative Care Tin Help Patients with Liver Illness
Palliative care can support patients with liver disease at whatsoever phase in their diagnosis by providing habitation visits from a nurse practitioner and social worker to manage symptoms and assist with education and planning for the future. Nurse practitioners piece of work with the patient'south primary intendance physician or hepatologist by providing an actress set of optics in the home to assess how the patient's handling is working. Equally the patient's symptoms alter, the nurse practitioner can work with the patient'due south physicians to adjust handling accordingly. Meanwhile, a social worker assists the patient and family unit by addressing emotional needs in addition to connecting the patient with additional services available in the community.
How Hospice Tin can Assist Patients with End-Stage Liver Disease
When a patient meets end-stage liver disease hospice eligibility requirements, including a life expectancy of six months or less if the disease follows its typical path, they may brainstorm hospice intendance. As before long every bit the patient is admitted to hospice intendance, a team of hospice professionals volition swing into action to provide intendance wherever the patient resides – including their home, a nursing home, or an assisted living facility.
The hospice team includes a medical managing director, nurse, adjutant, social worker, chaplain, bereavement counselors and volunteers who focus on providing the patient with the highest possible quality of life for as long every bit the patient has. This includes providing all medication, medical equipment, and medical supplies necessary for treatment of the patient'southward hospice diagnosis at no cost to the patient or family.
This whole-patient intendance is designed to support the patient's physical, emotional, and spiritual needs.
To learn more about how Crossroads Hospice & Palliative Care supports patients with liver affliction, delight call ane-888-564-3405.
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Source: https://www.crossroadshospice.com/hospice-palliative-care-blog/2019/october/29/what-is-end-stage-liver-disease/
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