What is the difference between acute and chronic hepatic failure?

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by gjshepherd_br

What is the difference between acute and chronic hepatic failure?the definitions seem shady, does anyone have clear and concise definitions. (Wiki isn't gonna do it)
please note: I said acute hepatic failure not just acute and chronic hepatic failure not just chronic.

science teacher
Chronic means that it is a long process that is progressing slowly. Acute means that it is right now, quick, and a definite strong problem now.

Joe D
Acute - short term

chronic - long term

Deanna
Acute hepatic failure often occurs as a result of the presence of a toxic agent in the body like metals, arsenic, phosphorus, or iron. Overdosing on tylenol is a fairly common cause of acute hepatic failure too. Other medications can also cause it. The ones that jump to mind are: phenytoin, tetracycline, MAOIs, and sulfonamides. Acute viral hepatitis, a fatty liver during pregnancy, sepsis, Wilson's disease, Reyes Syndrome, and hypoxia also cause the liver to fail acutely.
Early symptoms include nausea, upper right quadrant pain, lack of appetite, and jaundice. You can get renal failure, hypoglycemia, and GI bleeds from acute renal failure.

Encephalopathy sometimes results from acute hepatic failure, if it does not the prognosis for a patient recovering is really quite good. Even in cases when encephalopathy develops, with treatment, the liver usually recovers full function in about 8-10 weeks.

The really neat thing about the liver is that it regenerates itself, and you can live with only about 1/3 of it being in working order.

Chronic hepatic failure progresses over time, but can kill someone very quickly. Sometimes patients go from being confused to a coma very quickly. Cirrohsis and liver cancer are two causes of chronic hepatic failure. These are the patients who seem to just continually get more yellow. They have bleeding problems and GI issues.

You can get acute on chronic liver failure, which is just like it sounds like. You have a person who has cirrohsis and then has a separate acute liver failure caused by something else.

Hope this helps!

Einsteinliam
well acute bring more severe symptoms than chronic and it's ofcourse more complicated.

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