Fatty Liver

My name is Dr. Sanjay Jain, I am a senior consultant in the department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, Sarita Vihar in Delhi.

Today I like to talk about a very common condition called fatty liver I am sure most of you have heard about it and increasingly one an ultrasound is done the awareness about fatty liver is increasing. I want to tell you that most of the time people just tend to ignore when they are found to have fatty liver and that should not always be the case. Broadly speaking you can see there are two types of fatty liver one is a benign sort of fatty liver, where just ultrasound has picked up the extra fat in the liver. But all the blood test for the liver and another test to find out while more in the liver is normal. Most of these patients don't need to worry too much about it but of course, they need to take care of the extra fat in the liver. But the other group in which where the liver function test shows there is swelling in the liver which means a sort of Hepatitis and in this particular context it's called steatotic hepatitis that means fats induced hepatitis. These are the people whose lower functional test are not normal, they have got an ongoing swelling in the liver because of the extra fat deposited there and they are at the higher risk of liver-related complications. These people must get hold of the Gastroenterologist or their physician, they would need a detailed liver evaluation and most likely some treatment also. Regarding the causes of fatty liver, the two most common cause are alcohol and obesity, other common causes being diabetes, hypothyroidism etc. We have few drugs which are available now which can help in this condition rather than telling you the name of the drugs, I would like you, people, if you have found a fatty liver must see a doctor find out whether it is just benign incidental finding or it needs to be taken up further and act accordingly.

If you have any query about fatty liver or other gastroenterological problem you are most welcome to get in touch with me through lybrate.com.