What are the symptoms of fatty liver in pregnant women?

It is easy to experience symptoms such as nausea and vomiting in the early stages of pregnancy. This is a normal physiological reaction. If these symptoms still exist in the late stages of pregnancy, it is likely caused by fatty liver of the pregnant woman. What are the symptoms?

The cause of the disease is still unclear, but it is speculated to be related to hormonal changes caused by pregnancy. The pathological changes are that free fatty acids accumulate in organs such as the liver, kidneys, pancreas, and brain, causing damage to multiple organs. It often occurs between 28 and 40 weeks of pregnancy, especially in pregnancy-induced hypertension around 35 weeks of pregnancy or in primiparas pregnant with twins or boys.

In the early stages of the disease, pregnant women only experience persistent nausea, vomiting, fatigue, upper abdominal pain or headache, which can be easily confused with digestive system diseases such as gastroenteritis and liver disease. Jaundice appears within a few days to a week and gradually worsens. If the pregnancy is not terminated, the disease can progress rapidly and lead to coagulation disorders (such as skin petechiae, ecchymosis, hematemesis, bloody stools, gingival bleeding and intracranial hemorrhage), hypoglycemia, impaired consciousness, mental symptoms and coma, oliguria, anuria, and often death within a short period of time.

The prognosis of this disease is closely related to the early or late treatment. Conservative treatment has an extremely high maternal and infant mortality rate, and there is no precedent for prenatal rehabilitation in the world so far. Therefore, once a pregnant woman is confirmed or highly suspected to have idiopathic fatty liver, the pregnancy should be terminated as soon as possible regardless of the severity of the disease. Early termination of pregnancy, most patients' liver function recovers rapidly after delivery. If the patient seeks medical treatment late and the pregnancy is not terminated in time, the patient may suffer from massive gastrointestinal bleeding, subcutaneous hematoma throughout the body, or even intracranial hemorrhage, and die rapidly.