world doctors
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About Liver failure
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The greatest international website of world doctors :
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Liver disease is any disturbance of liver function that causes illness. The liver is responsible
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for many critical functions within the body and should it become diseased or injured, the loss
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of those functions can cause significant damage to the body. Liver disease is also referred to
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as hepatic disease.
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Liver disease is a broad term that covers all the potential problems that cause the liver to fail
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to perform its designated functions. Usually, more than 75% or three quarters of liver tissue
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needs to be affected before decrease in function occurs.
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The liver is the largest solid organ in the body; and is also considered a gland because among
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its many functions, it makes and secretes bile. The liver is located in the upper right portion
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of the abdomen protected by the rib cage. It has two main lobes that are made up of tiny
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lobules. The liver cells have two different sources of blood supply. The hepatic artery supplies
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oxygen rich blood that is pumped from the heart, while the portal vein supplies nutrients from
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the intestine and the spleen.
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Normally, veins return blood from the body to the heart, but the portal vein allows chemicals
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from the digestive tract to enter the liver for "detoxification" and filtering prior to entering the
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general circulation. The portal vein also efficiently delivers the chemicals and proteins that
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liver cells need to produce the proteins, cholesterol, and glycogen required for normal body
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activities.
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