Patient's question:
Father always drinks beer and has long suffered from alcoholic cirrhosis. A while ago, he was diagnosed with cirrhosis, and in the past two days, he has been confused and disoriented. He then went to the hospital for a thorough examination and found that his blood ammonia levels had decreased. He wants to know the mechanism by which a decrease in blood ammonia leads to hepatic encephalopathy and if there are any effective ways to alleviate it.Doctor's answer:
Under normal circumstances, blood ammonia is metabolized and decomposed by the liver. Currently, your father has developed alcoholic cirrhosis, and his liver function has been lost. The blood ammonia produced in his body cannot be decomposed and metabolized, accumulating internally and leading to a recurrence of ammonia poisoning, which causes brain dysfunction and confusion. The solution is to use drugs that lower blood ammonia for treatment, such as intravenous infusions of glutamic acid, arginine, etc.