Chronic Liver Diseases in the Department of Internal Medicine

Chronic liver diseases are very common. Liver cirrhosis results from chronic damage to the liver over several years. It involves the gradual replacement of liver cells with fibrous tissue. The more fibrous tissue there is, the fewer liver cells there will be. As a result, the liver will have greater difficulty performing its synthetic and detoxification functions. The problem is that symptoms are often not noticed, as cirrhosis is painless. Toxic substances accumulate, and complications-such as gastrointestinal bleeding or liver cancer-reveal the presence of cirrhosis. Another liver disease is liver cancer. Cancer cells develop in the liver; this may be primary liver cancer, which most often results from a complication of cirrhosis or hepatitis B or hepatitis C. Cancer may also have first formed elsewhere in the body before spreading to the liver (metastatic cancer, referred to as liver metastasis). Our studies highlight the clinical, etiological, progressive, and epidemiological characteristics of these chronic liver diseases at the Department of Internal Medicine at Donka and Kindia Regional Hospital.