Dietary considerations for patients with cirrhosis

  The old man at home idly eating candy, talking accidentally swallowed the whole piece of sugar, not long after the old man felt nauseous and wanted to vomit, but suddenly the old man vomited several large mouthfuls of blood from the mouth, which scared the family, rushed to the hospital to rescue, how to eat a candy hemorrhage it?  It turns out that the old man has a history of more than 10 years of hepatitis B cirrhosis, the digestive tract vascular varices, itself is easy to rub with food, and sugar ball surface roughness, hardness, cut the varicose and weak blood vessels, resulting in gastrointestinal hemorrhage, the liver receives the gastrointestinal tract venous reflux, but after the occurrence of cirrhosis, esophageal and gastric fundus venous reflux into the liver blocked slow, the fundus esophageal plexus will expand varicose, when When the venous pressure reaches a certain level, it is easy to rupture and bleed, and the bleeding volume is large and not easy to stop. Upper gastrointestinal bleeding is the most common complication of cirrhosis and the most likely cause of sudden death, and is also the main cause of death in cirrhosis.  Patients with liver cirrhosis should cooperate with the doctor’s treatment in addition to its daily diet there is nothing to pay attention to?  1, it is appropriate to chew slowly, avoid overeating: chew slowly to fully grind food and fully mixed with digestive juices, which is conducive to the digestion and absorption of food. Overeating on the one hand, food can not be fully ground, on the other hand, will cause rapid expansion of the stomach, are prone to induce gastrointestinal bleeding 2, should be nutritious less slag, avoid rough and hard food: cirrhotic patients due to esophagogastric fundus varices, easily cut by hard and rough food bleeding. Eating must be careful to avoid fish spines, bones, etc., nuts such as peanuts, melon seeds should also be cautious, if you want to eat must be chewed, chewed, for fear of cutting the “thin ice” varicose fundic esophageal veins, if the rupture of the esophagogastric varices bleeding serious consequences.  3, adequate nutrition: cirrhosis patients often poor appetite, to ensure the intake of nutrients is essential, but there is no absolute unified recipe, with the patient’s personal choice, experience flexible, nutritious enough, if poor appetite, recipes as diverse as possible.  4, low-salt diet: cirrhosis patients often have ascites and swelling of the lower limbs due to low albumin, if the intake of too much salt will aggravate ascites and lower limb edema, food without taste can be replaced with low salt seasoning.  5, keep the stool smooth: conducive to ammonia, endotoxin and other toxic substances timely elimination, can prevent liver injury aggravation, especially endotoxin can make the portal pressure further increase, inducing upper gastrointestinal bleeding. Therefore, patients with liver cirrhosis should pay attention to keep the stool smooth, available lactulose laxative.  6, prohibit alcohol, do not use over-the-counter drugs, in short, to avoid all factors that can aggravate liver damage.  There is no special treatment for cirrhosis, the key is to prevent complications, prolong life and improve quality of life.  (1) General treatment: rest; high-protein, high-calorie, high-vitamin diet, but patients with hepatic encephalopathy should strictly limit protein intake, prohibit alcohol, patients with ascites should eat less salt or salt-free diet, avoid eating rough, hard food, so as not to trigger gastrointestinal bleeding; supportive treatment; avoid the application of hepatotoxic drugs.  (2) Drug therapy: antiviral therapy; anti-liver fibrosis therapy. This usually has to be started in the early stage of cirrhosis, with limited effect of late treatment.  (3) Treatment of ascites: control of water and sodium intake; application of diuretics: at present, the combination of two types of diuretics, spironolactone and furosemide, is mostly advocated; correction of insufficient effective circulating blood volume: regular small and multiple intravenous infusions of human albumin or plasma; release of ascites plus infusion of human albumin, etc.  (4) Liver transplantation: Liver transplantation can be considered for patients with end-stage cirrhosis of different etiologies to improve the quality of survival and prolong life.