What is hepatitis C?

It is an infection caused by a virus called the hepatitis C virus that has high affinity for liver tissue. The virus is found in the blood of people with this disease.

This infection affects over 170 million people worldwide, and some estimates indicate that there may be 800 000 infected patients, although many of them do not know.

What are the symptoms of hepatitis C?

Hepatitis may be overlooked, many patients have no symptoms. Often the infection is diagnosed for other reasons, the laboratory abnormalities found in a routine, for example.

In the acute phase only 5% have a typical picture of fatigue, lack of appetite, yellowing of the skin, dark urine, white stools, generalized itching. Others pass the disease like a cold or even without knowing.

Once it has become chronic, the symptoms can take are those of chronic hepatitis (often indistinguishable from other caused by other viruses or for other reasons). In general, patients are tired and may lose their appetite. When the disease is advanced may appear swollen legs and abdomen, abnormal blood clotting with frequent occurrence of bruising or bleeding from the nose or gums. Some males have breast enlargement (gynecomastia) can also increase the parotid glands, or reddish lesions appear on the skin. The skin takes on a yellowish tinge (jaundice), and advanced stages can become darker. Other complications are the occurrence of esophageal varices (dilated veins in the esophagus) that may bleed or hepatic encephalopathy (patients are confused, sleepy and disoriented).

The virus can cause an acute infection that is often asymptomatic. This can become chronic in 50-70% of cases. About 20% of patients progress to cirrhosis within 10 years after infection.

Many cases of hepatitis C are diagnosed in patients without symptoms who do not remember having spent an acute hepatitis. Sometimes the diagnosis is made when patients are donating blood or if carried out routine analysis.

The virus is spread mainly through blood, sex a few times and exceptionally from mother to child. In many cases is unknown mode of transmission.

So it can come from a lack of male hormones, or by an increased estrogen production and to increase proliferation of the glandular tissue. Chronic diseases, this can especially liver or kidney disease, causing gynecomastia. The false gynecomastia, however based on an accumulation of fat, as occurs in overweight or obese.

The treatment for gynecomastia is therefore also false solely in the weight loss. Sustainable treatment of true gynecomastia, however, calls whatever the therapy of the underlying disease. As these individuals, however, often suffer from their enlarged breasts, gynecomastia can be additionally treated with hormone preparations.

Not in all cases, this therapy, however, leads to success. In these cases, plastic surgery can help. During the operation, performed under general anesthesia, the excess glandular tissue is removed and any existing fat suction. In general, it requires only a few cuts.

As with all surgery carries the gynecomastia surgery without risks. Thus, for example, numbness occur, which can last up to one year. In rare cases it can also occur in scar formation.