“What can cause liver cirrhosis?”
My father was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis, but we aren't sure of how this was caused at all because he stopped drinking a long time ago. What usually causes this condition?
1 Answer
Patients can develop cirrhosis even from only a short period of drinking, and some patients will have undetected cirrhosis which only becomes detectable years after they stop. Neither of these are common, but both exist. Your father probably has had mild cirrhosis for years; as he's gotten older, his body has less and less ability to compensate and now it has manifested. Alcohol is the most common cause of cirrhosis in the US, followed by viral hepatitis.
