The absence of ascites in cirrhotic patients can be seen in the compensated stage of cirrhosis or in the decompensated stage of cirrhosis, and the presence or absence of ascites cannot be relied upon alone to determine the severity of the disease.
Cirrhosis refers to the pathological stage characterized by diffuse hepatic fibrosis, pseudofollicular formation, and proliferation of blood vessels inside and outside the liver caused by various chronic liver diseases. According to the progressive state of the disease, cirrhosis is often clinically categorized into compensated and decompensated stages.
In the compensated stage, there are generally no obvious clinical symptoms or mild symptoms, there may be abdominal discomfort, fatigue, dyspepsia and other symptoms, and most of them are intermittent, liver function tests are normal or mildly abnormal. The main goal of this stage is to protect liver function, delay the progression of liver function to decompensation, and strive to reverse liver lesions.
Symptoms are more pronounced in the decompensation stage, which is mainly characterized by portal hypertension and severe impairment of liver function. Patients may not have ascites, but nausea and anorexia, abdominal distension, malnutrition, jaundice, hemorrhage, endocrine disorders, splenomegaly and hypersplenism, etc. Liver function tests are obviously abnormal or diminished, and they are prone to complications such as hepatic encephalopathy and gastrointestinal hemorrhage, which may lead to death in severe cases.
If you have been diagnosed with liver cirrhosis, you should go to the hospital as soon as possible, and under the guidance of the doctor and according to the patient’s condition, the professional physician will judge the severity of the disease.