What are the treatments for cirrhosis and portal hypertension?
Once liver cells have been damaged, nothing can be done to repair the liver or cure cirrhosis. Treatment is aimed at avoiding further damage to the liver, and preventing and treating complications such as bleeding from broken blood vessels. Your doctor may prescribe a medicine to help prevent your blood vessels from breaking open. Drugs that prevent broken blood vessels have some side effects. Not everyone can take them. If medicine isnt enough, surgery may help stop the bleeding from broken blood vessels. One option is to interrupt the flow of blood to swollen varices in the area where the esophagus (the tube leading to the stomach) attaches to the stomach. A long lighted tube is passed through the mouth to the stomach. Then rubber bands or hardening chemicals are placed on the swollen blood vessels to block them off. If this procedure isnt successful, a person with portal hypertension may need to have a surgeon connect the blood vessels in such a way that the blood doesnt flow throug
