This condition is an inflammation of the capsule of the liver, and it is always secondary to some other lesion. A chronic pleurisy of the right side often extends through the diaphragm, and causes inflammation of the subjacent peritoneum, including the under surface of diaphragm and upper surface of liver, so that firm adhesion is the result. This is often the case in phthisis pulmonalis. A general chronic or acute peritonitis usually involves the capsule of the liver as well as other parts of the peritoneum. Sometimes cirrhosis or syphilitic disease of the liver extends to the capsule.

The inflammation is in most cases chronic, and results in a thickening of the capsule. Sometimes there are shaggy papilliform projections from the capsule, and there is frequently adhesion to the parts around, especially to the diaphragm. The thickened capsule undergoes contraction like the new-formed connective tissue in other inflammations, and the result frequently is considerable deformity of the liver. The capsule, contracting all round the liver, doubles-in its anterior edge, causing the organ to assume an approach to the globular shape. The contraction causes also atrophy of the liver tissue, and seriously interferes with the circulation in the organ.

Literature

Suppurative Inflammations - Frerichs, 1. c; Mcrchison, 1. c; Buck-UBO, 36 Falle v. Lefierabscess., 1868; Klebs, Handb., ii.; Budd, Dis. of liver, 2nd ed., 1852; Dickinson, Path, trans., xxxii., 1881; Fayrer, Tropical dysentery and diarrhoea, liver abscess, etc., 1881; Finlayson, (with literature) Glas. Med. Jour., v., 1873. Cirrhosis - Budd, Frerichs, etc., 1. c; Liebermeister, Beitrage z. path. Anat. u. Klinik der Leberkrankheiten; Charcot, Lecons sur les malad. du foie, 1877; Hanot, Cirrhose hypertrophique avec ictere., 1876; Saundby, Path, trans., xxx., 1879; Lego, (Expers. by ligature of bile duct) St. Barth. Hosp. Rep., ix., 1873; Osler, Med. Times and Gazette, 1881; Dreschfeld, Jour, of Anat. and Phys., xv.; Brieger, Virch. Arch., lxxv., 1879; KrSnio, (Cirrhosis from phosphorus-poisoning) Virch. Arch., ex., 1887.