[Nonalcoholic hepatic steatosis: a silent disease].

Abstract

Alteration of hepatic lipid metabolism can originate an excessive accumulation of lipids and lead to hepatic steatosis emergence and when not related to chronic alcohol consumption, it is known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Being a disease with a complex pathophysiology and with several phases, which encompass different degrees of complexity and severity: simple steatosis, steatohepatitis, fibrosis, cirrhosis and in some cases even liver cancer. Besides, this disease is difficult to diagnose and asymptomatic until it presents complications. As well is related to other metabolic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, dyslipidemias, insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome. Which are a public health problem at the national and global levels. In this review, the pathophysiology, its relationship with metabolic diseases, genetic factors, associated risk factors, epidemiology, clinical manifestations, diagnosis and current pharmacological treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease were analyzed.