Cirrhosis is scarring (fibrosis) of the liver caused by long-term liver damage. The scar tissue prevents the liver working properly.

Cirrhosis is sometimes called end-stage liver disease because it happens after other stages of damage from conditions that affect the liver, such as hepatitis.

Your liver may keep working even when you have cirrhosis. However, cirrhosis can eventually lead to liver failure, and you can get serious complications, which can be life threatening.

Treatment may be able to stop cirrhosis from getting worse.

Symptoms of cirrhosis

You may not have any symptoms during the early stages of cirrhosis.

As your liver becomes more damaged, you may:

• feel very tired and weak
• feel sick (nausea)
• lose your appetite
• lose weight and muscle mass
• get red patches on your palms and small, spider-like blood vessels on your skin (spider angiomas) above waist level

If cirrhosis gets worse, some of the symptoms and complications include:

• yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes (jaundice)
• vomiting blood
• itchy skin
• dark pee and tarry-looking poo
• bleeding or bruising easily
• swollen legs (oedema) or tummy (ascites) from a build-up of fluid
• loss of sex drive (libido)

See a GP if you think you may have cirrhosis.