What is so bad about an hypertrophy of the heart, liver, and so on?

Question

Is there any organ or case in which hypertrophy would help? I don't understand why an organ enlargening is bad. Is it because the mechanism is fluid buildup, causing congestion?

Answer 1

Hypertrophy of the heart is primarily bad because oxygen demand is greater -- i.e. more heart muscle means more blood is required to adequately perfuse it. If that oxygen demand is not met, there is an ischemic heart attack, and the tissue will die, which is obviously not a good situation.

Hypertrophy of the liver (hepatomegaly) is primarily to accomodate greater metabolism of some agent (like alcohol), and is a reversible change if exposure to that agent is discontinued. Hepatomegaly is primarily of concern because it suggests potential damage if continued exposure occurs (e.g. chronic alcoholism), and may lead to irreversible and permanent damage, seen as hepatic cirrhosis.

Answer 2

A chamber of the heart hypertrophies. This means the muscle fibers increase in size. Such increase in size occurs when a heart chamber contracts against resistance in much the same way as the biceps hypertrophies with dumb bells. This is good and is needed for sometime. But what happens if we don`t give up he dumb bell exercise and are forced to continue without gap. Biceps get fatigued and fail. Hypertrophied heart chamber gets fatigued and fails if the cause of resistance like valvular obstruction or high blood pressure are not corrected.
Liver increases in size as a compensatory mechanism when some poison like alcohol destroys some cells . What happens if the toxin like alcohol is taken without break? All liver cells are destroyed and liver also fails.
Hypertrophy as a compensatory mechanism is good but the cause must be removed