Pediatric Cirrhosis

Early symptoms

• Abdominal swelling
• Fatigue (extreme tiredness)
• General weakness
• Painful or tender abdomen
• Reduced appetite
• Unintentional weight loss

Later symptoms

• Bruising easily
• Enlarged liver
• Enlarged spleen
• Infections in the abdomen
• Itching
• Feeling confused or unusually forgetful
• Jaundice 
• Liver cancer
• Loss of body hair
• Reddened palms of the hands
• Retaining water
• Swelling of the legs and abdomen
• Tremors
• Urine that is dark in color
• Vomiting blood
• Wounds that take unusually long to heal

Causes of cirrhosis in children can include:

• Alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency - hereditary condition that can lead to lung and liver disease
• Autoimmune hepatitis — inflammation of the liver caused by the body’s immune system mistakenly attacking the liver
• Bile duct diseases — affect the tube that carries bile from the gallbladder to the small intestine during the normal course of digestion
• Cystic fibrosis
• Exposure to certain drugs and toxins — including methotrexate (medication used to treat cancer), rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis) and high levels of vitamin A
• Fatty liver disease — group of conditions that affect the liver of a person without a history of alcoholism
• Glycogen storage disease — condition in which a child’s body is unable to process or store the energy found in foods
• Hepatitis B  — viral infection that affects the liver and causes both acute (short-term) and chronic (ongoing) complications
• Hepatitis C — viral infection that leads to inflammation of the liver and other related complications
• Tyrosinemia — genetic condition that causes problems breaking down a specific amino acid – called tyrosine – that is found in most sources of protein
• Wilson’s disease — hereditary condition in which excessive amounts of copper accumulates in a child’s organs