Hello! I have been a doctor for 21 years. My name is Georgy Olegovich Sapego. In this article I will talk about liquid in the abdomen.
In the abdomen, many organs are piled in one dense heap. Each organ is covered with a smooth and slippery peritoneum. Therefore, the organs do not stick together, but slide in all directions. They, of course, have ligaments and mesentery that do not allow you to slip far, but there is always mobility.
When the doctor feels the abdomen, he makes the organs move, moves them and tries to understand how they slip between the fingers. This is necessary for the diagnosis.
To make the organs glide well, they are lubricated with a small amount of liquid. While this liquid is not enough, the abdominal cavity resembles a lump of multi-colored plasticine, which a child indulged in. All organs there are flattened and stuck together.
But if there is a lot of lubrication, then it breaks apart the organs and pushes them apart. At the same time, the abdominal cavity will look like an aquarium, where separate organs float instead of fish. This is called
ascites. Most often, ascites is a tryndets that will end very badly in the coming years.Causes
In the first place here is portal hypertension. Portal means from the portal vein. Through the portal vein, blood from the intestines goes to the liver. That is, all the yummy eaten through this vein rushes into a large filter, which we call a liver.
This is vital, because in addition to yummy, nasty things like medicines, vodka and toxins get into the bloodstream from the intestines.
Remember when we discussed that kilograms of microbes live in the intestines? These are, by and large, semi-liquid poop, which also try to be absorbed into the blood. If all this nasty stuff got into the brain in a straight line with blood, then our head would shut off (spoiler - sometimes it happens).
But the liver stands in the way of blood, which works like a filter. This is a very fine filter. It can be spoiled by some hepatitis, and then the filter will wrinkle like a highlight. Blood from the intestines will pass through such a highlight with great difficulty. The pressure in the portal vein will increase and the liquid part of the blood will sweat into the abdominal cavity. Gradually, a lot of liquid can accumulate there. The stomach will enlarge. Ascites will turn out.
If the liver is shrunken from cirrhosis, then from this no longer recover.
Alcohol
Sometimes the liver does not shrink, but simply swells sharply. For example from alcohol. Swollen liver cells can also pinch the portal vein, resulting in ascites. This is the rare case when a person has portal hypertension, but you can still stop drinking and the stomach will shrink. Not everyone is so lucky. More often, alcohol gradually leads to cirrhosis, and then ascites will be a sentence.
Veno-occlusive disease
Sometimes a person is not guilty of anything, and his portal vein itself shrinks and does not let blood through. This is called veno-occlusive disease. An occlusion is a blockage.
Although, probably, sometimes a person is to blame... In addition to reasons beyond our control, there are also veno-occlusive diseases from plants. Someone drinks Chinese teas, someone eats exotic Afghan honey. These products contain plant toxins, which can also lead to coronary artery disease. It ends badly.
Protein
I noticed that people are doing albumin tests for themselves. In fact, it usually doesn't make sense for a walking and working person to test their albumin.
Albumin is a protein that holds water in the blood. If there is little albumin, then water will escape from the blood. And it can also leak into the abdominal cavity.
This also happens in severe kidney disease, when protein is filtered into the urine. Or with bowel diseases. Or if a person has absolutely nothing to eat. Have you seen pictures of starving African children? There is just protein starvation and big swollen bellies.
Heart failure
In the topic of heart failure, we have already discussed the situation when the heart cannot cope with pumping blood, and water accumulates in the stomach.
Tumors
This is also a sad story. If we see ascites in a woman, then we immediately think about ovarian cancer.
Please ask questions in the comments and share your experience. I know for sure that swollen bellies worry many.
If you liked the article, then like it and subscribe to my channel. Check out my articles on related topics:
Alcoholic liver disease
Fatty hepatosis
Vivid symptoms of liver disease
Diet for cirrhosis
