Enlarged Liver Symptoms in Children

An enlarged liver---also known as hepatomegaly---is a sign of liver failure. While hepatomegaly itself is not a disease, an enlarged liver is a symptom of a disease that is affecting the liver adversely, such as hepatitis or liver cancer. The condition can strike children as well as adults.

Identification

• The liver performs many complex actions, but the most important ones include filtering blood, creating bile, manufacturing protein and removing toxins from the body.

Symptoms

• A liver that is slightly enlarged often produces no symptoms. As the liver continues to enlarge, the child will begin to feel "full" all the time, experiences abdominal pain, and shows yellowing of the skin and eyes, also known as jaundice.

Causes

• A liver grows larger as it becomes inflamed from disease. In children, enlarged livers often result from hepatitis or hepatoblastoma, a liver cancer that affects infants and children. As liver functions begin to fail, symptoms of liver failure such as jaundice appear.

Solution

• Treatment of the underlying disease also repairs the damaged liver, which can often repair itself. In the very worst cases, such as with severe chronic hepatitis B, the child may require a liver transplant.

Prevention

• Because hepatitis is a major, preventable cause of liver disease in children, parents should make sure their children wash their hands thoroughly and frequently.