Liver Care

The liver is your body’s MVP, performing 500 jobs to keep you going strong. Virtua Advanced Transplant & Organ Health liver experts (hepatologists) use the latest medications and treatments for hepatitis, fatty liver disease, liver cancer, scarring, and more to improve your quality of life.

Causes and Symptoms of Liver Disease

About the size of a football, the liver is located under your rib cage on the right side of your abdomen. Your liver does many important things, including:

• Removing waste from the body

• Making bile to help digest food

• Storing sugar your body uses for energy

• Making new proteins used for making and repairing new cells

Causes of liver disease

Liver problems may be caused by a variety of issues, including:

• Hepatitis (inflammation of the liver) and other viruses
• Problems with your immune system
• Alcohol abuse
• Cancer
• Obesity
• An inherited condition

Signs of liver disease

Left untreated, damage to the liver can cause scarring, or cirrhosis, of liver tissue. Cirrhosis reduces the liver’s ability to function, and eventually leads to liver failure. Over time, you may experience these symptoms:

• Yellowed skin and eyes (jaundice)
• Abdominal pain and swelling
• Swelling in the legs and ankles
• Dark-colored urine
• Fatigue
• Itchy skin
• Nausea or vomiting
• Loss of appetite
• Bruising easily

When to seek care

See a doctor if you experience any of these symptoms. Seek immediate medical attention if you have severe abdominal pain.

Types of Liver Disease

• Infections, including hepatitis A, B, and C
• Fatty liver disease, the storage of extra fat in the liver, including nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), alcoholic hepatitis, and alcoholic cirrhosis
• Immune system problems, including autoimmune hepatitis (when your body’s infection-fighting system attacks your liver), primary biliary cholangitis (a chronic disease where the bile ducts in your liver are slowly destroyed), and primary sclerosing cholangitis (scarring and narrowing of the bile ducts caused by inflammation)
• Cancer, including liver cancer, bile duct cancer, and liver cell adenoma
• Inherited conditions, including hemochromatosis (absorbing too much iron from food), hyperoxaluria (having too much oxalate in your urine), Wilson’s disease (having too much copper in your organs), and Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (lacking a protein that protects your lungs)

Liver Disease Diagnosis at Virtua

To diagnose and determine the cause of your liver disease, your doctor may recommend:

• Blood tests to measure your liver enzymes and other indicators of your liver function.
• Imaging tests such as transient elastrography (FibroScan), which uses ultrasound to reveal the level of scarring within the liver. Other tests include an MRI or CT scan.
• Biopsy, which uses a thin needle to remove a small sample of liver tissue.

Liver Conditions Treated

Conditions our team of hepatologists (doctors who specialize in liver disease) treat include:

• Hepatitis B and C
• Fatty liver disease, including nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)
• Liver failure in a person with no preexisting liver disease
• Refractory ascites, the buildup of excess fluid in the abdomen, often caused by cirrhosis of the liver
• Autoimmune and cholestatic chronic liver disease
• Portal hypertension
• Liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma) and bile duct cancer
• Advanced-stage hepatic encephalopathy
• Acute and acute-on-chronic liver failure

Liver Disease Treatment at Virtua

Our hepatologists, surgeons, interventional radiologists, pharmacists, and nursing professionals use the newest approaches to treat your condition. This may include:

• Medication to treat your liver disease, as well as its cause
• Dietary changes
• Y-90 radioembolization, tumor ablation, and resection (for cancer)
• Surgery

For many liver conditions, the most effective treatment is a liver transplant. Our multidisciplinary team will work with you to evaluate your suitability for transplant and place you on the transplant wait list.

Hepatitis C Center

Virtua Advanced Transplant & Organ Health specializes in the treatment of hepatitis C. During each visit to this unique center, patients receive lab testing on site (depending on insurance) and screening to determine the stage of your disease. This noninvasive test, called transient elastography (FibroScan) uses ultrasound to reveal the level of scarring within the liver.

You will consult with a specialty pharmacist, who will answer any questions or concerns and help identify resources to pay for necessary medication.