What Is Autoimmune Hepatitis & Why Is It So Serious?

Liver Cancer

Liver cancer is one of the complications of autoimmune hepatitis. This is because the disorder causes scarring in the liver, which increases the risk of cancer of the liver. The type of cancer that affects autoimmune hepatitis patients is called hepatocellular carcinoma. This is a primary cancer, which means the malignancy begins in the liver. Sometimes in other cancers, the malignancy will metastasize to the liver and cause a secondary cancer. However, even with autoimmune hepatitis, the incidence of liver cancer is rare.

In some studies of individuals with autoimmune hepatitis, none of the subjects came down with cancer of the liver, even if they had cirrhosis caused by their autoimmune disease. Individuals who were more likely to get hepatocellular carcinoma had hepatitis B or C, liver disease caused by alcoholism, chronic viral hepatitis, or primary biliary cirrhosis. Other patients who developed cancer of the liver had hemochromatosis, a condition where the body stores too much iron.

Fluid In The Abdomen

Fluid in the abdomen is called ascites, and this is common in individuals who have liver disease. It is an abnormal build-up of fluid inside the patient's peritoneal cavity and is a common sign of cirrhosis of the liver. Individuals who have ascites suffer from bloating, pain in the abdomen, and shortness of breath. Ascites gets its name because the fluid in the abdomen is full of protein, or ascetic. It happens because when the liver is cirrhotic, the portal vein that delivers blood to it is under abnormally high pressure, called portal hypertension. Because the blood is brought up from the intestine, one of the complications of ascites due to cirrhosis is a bleed in the intestine. This is considered a medical emergency.