Área salud / Liver disease / Alcoholic liver diseases

The chronic consumption of alcohol may cause liver damage and there is a very close correlation between the annual mortality rate due to cirrhosis and alcohol consumption. In Spain, alcohol consumption is one of the highest worldwide and mortality due to cirrhosis has increased parallel to the increase of alcohol consumption in recent years.

The diseases caused by chronic alcohol consumption are:

Alcoholic hepatitis

This disease is characterized by the existence of areas of cell necrosis (death) with an inflammatory infiltrate. Hepatocytes are large and internally comprise aggregates of a homogenous material referred to as alcoholic hyaline or Mallory bodies.

The clinical picture of alcoholic hepatitis is broad and comprises forms showing no symptoms to fulminant forms with hepatocellular failure. Normally, it initially presents with asthenia, loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting. After a few days abdominal pain on the right side, jaundice and fever appear. The liver is enlarged and painful.

Mortality caused directly by alcoholic hepatitis ranges between 10 and 25% of all cases.

Chronic alcoholic hepatitis

Alcoholics frequently have lesions similar to those of chronic viral hepatitis but the fact that they recover after suppressing alcohol intake indicates that the cause of the disease is alcohol. It does not have any defined clinical features and it is generally detected by liver biopsy.

Chronic alcoholic cirrhosis

It presents the same clinical manifestations as cirrhosis of any other etiology. The evolution of alcoholic cirrhosis is variable, but survival usually depends on whether or not the patient stops consuming alcohol. There is greater survival and a delay in the onset of complications in patients with cirrhosis who stop drinking.
In patients showing a rapid deterioration after a period of stability, it is necessary to consider the possibility that they have developed a hepatic carcinoma.