Baylor Scott & White
expertise in liver disease
One of the largest and most important organs,
the liver performs many vital functions. It filters
the blood, detoxifies chemicals, and metabolizes
medicines. It also creates bile, which aids in digestion.
Hepatology is the division of medicine that
treats the liver. Patients with liver disease can
experience such symptoms as fatigue, nausea,
itching, or jaundice. Dr. Vincent says the most
common liver diseases treated in her department
are hepatitis C and fatty liver disease.
Hepatitis C is a viral infection that causes
inflammation in the liver, and fatty liver disease is
often a consequence of poor eating habits. Both
can cause inflammation and cirrhosis.
Fatty liver disease is divided into two categories:
alcoholic and nonalcoholic. Alcoholic fatty liver
disease is not necessarily worse, she says.
“They often look very similar. The difference
is one patient has a history of alcohol use.”
Both hepatitis C and fatty liver disease can
become severe enough that liver transplantation
is necessary. Hepatitis C is currently the leading
cause for liver transplantation in the United
States, but that could change soon, Dr. Vincent
says. “We believe in the near future fatty liver
disease will be the number one cause for liver
transplant.”
One of the main reasons for this change is the
emergence of better drugs to treat hepatitis
C. The other is America’s continuing obesity
epidemic. Increasingly, Dr. Vincent says, fatty
liver disease is being discovered in children.
“They are going to develop inflammation at a
younger age and cirrhosis at a younger age,”