The following symptoms and complaints may indicate liver insufficiency (liver failure):
Leading symptoms
- Hepatic encephalopathy (HE, synonyms: portosystemic encephalopathy, hepatoportal encephalopathy, minimal encephalopathy; it is a potentially reversible brain dysfunction that results from inadequate detoxification function of the liver)
- Impaired consciousness
- Euphoria, depression
- Insomnia (sleep disorders)
- Confusion
- Icterus (jaundice)
- Foetor hepaticus – specific breath odor (after raw liver).
- Flapping tremor (flutter tremor) – coarse hand tremor.
- Decreased liver size
- Blood clotting disorders
- Hepatorenal syndrome (HRS) – functional, in principle fully reversible decrease in glomerular filtration rate (total volume of primary urine filtered by all glomeruli (renal corpuscles) of both kidneys together, in a defined unit of time) resulting in oliguric renal failure (in oliguric renal failure, kidneys output < 500 ml of urine/day) in patients with liver cirrhosis (irreversible damage to the liver, leading to gradual connective tissue remodeling of the liver with impairment of liver function) or fulminant hepatitis (liver inflammation) in the absence of evidence of other causes of renal failure (slowly progressive reduction in renal function)
- Hypalbuminemia/hypoalbuminemia (decreased concentration of the plasma protein albumin in the blood plasma) with ascites (abdominal fluid).
- Arterial hypotension (low blood pressure)
- Hyperventilation (excessive breathing)
- Nail symptoms: leukonychia (white nails: dot, streak or patchy white areas of the nails).
