BIOCHEMICAL FUNCTIONS OF THE LIVER

The morphological and functional integrity of the liver is vital to the health of the human organism. This essentially depends upon constant maintenance of the numerous biochemical functions of the liver and the diverse metabolic processes occurring in the hepatocytes and sinusoidal cells. 

In the course of acute or chronic liver disease, the biochemical functions of the liver may be compromised indefinitely the outcome is decompensated liver insufficiency. (s. pp 277, 381) (s. tab. 20.4) The stage of decompensation is synonymous with the onset of life-threatening complications. These mainly take the form of hepatic encephalopathy with transition to hepatic coma (see chapter 15), oedema and ascites with imbalance of the electrolytes and the acid-base equilibrium (see chapter 16) through to the hepatorenal syndrome (see chapter... 

The chapter begins with a discussion of the anatomy and biochemical functions of the liver. The various disease states that involve the fiver are then discussed. The chapter concludes with a discussion of use of laboratory test results in recognizing and characterizing patterns of fiver injury. 

---