Therapy | Hepatitis A

Therapy

A therapy of a harmless hepatitis A is not necessary in most cases. A light diet, bed rest and general hygiene measures to protect the environment from infection are the general measures.Patients with fecal incontinence should be isolated over the infectious period. The most important part of the therapy is the elimination of additional liver-damaging substances.

This means absolute abstinence from alcohol, as alcohol can significantly aggravate the clinical picture. This also applies to drugs that have a possible liver-damaging effect. In the very rare case of fulminant liver failure, liver transplantation may be necessary as the last therapeutic option.

In rare cases, a hepatitis A infection can develop faster and more severely than normal. The healing phase can be prolonged in cases of alcohol and/or drug abuse, or if liver cells have been damaged. Triggered by the loss of liver cells in hepatitis, a hepatic coma can follow in severe cases.

This can lead to liver failure. However, this is very rarely the case. Cirrhosis leads to an increase in connective tissue and the destruction of the physiological organ structure.

This leads to a reduced performance of the liver. The liver can no longer perform its tasks completely, which means that its most important task of freeing the body from foreign and dangerous substances is lost. The most frequent cause of cirrhosis of the liver is alcohol abuse, followed by infections with viral hepatitis, mostly due to chronic infections.

In hepatitis A, cirrhosis of the liver occurs only in exceptional cases. There is no chronic hepatitis A. It can also be completely asymptomatic and can only be detected when an antibody titre is determined.

Which then proves that an expired infection with subsequent immunization must have occurred. However, a hepatitis A infection can have a two-phase course or persist over a longer period of time. Sometimes an infection occurs extremely quickly and then very severely.

In a healthy person who is not at any particular risk, hepatitis A infection heals completely and then receives lifelong immunological protection. In about 0.5-2% of the cases a fatal outcome is seen through a hepatitis A infection. Patients with chronic liver disease, such as chronic hepatitis B or C, are particularly at risk, since an additional HAV infection places a great additional burden on the liver. As a matter of principle, all patients who are at health risk should be vaccinated with the hepatitis A virus upon exposure and additionally treated with an immunoglobulin preparation to avoid major complications.