Alcohol-Related Liver Disease: Symptoms, Treatment and More

When cirrhosis progresses to end-stage alcoholism liver disease, a liver transplant may be needed. Liver transplantation for alcoholic liver disease is only considered in people who have completely avoided alcohol for 6 months. Patients with alcoholic hepatitis are prone to infections, especially when on steroids; this is particularly important as it might lead to a poor prognosis, acute renal injury, and multi-organ dysfunction. Patients with alcoholic hepatitis are at risk of alcohol withdrawal. Lorazepam and oxazepam are the preferred benzodiazepines for prophylaxis and treatment of alcohol withdrawal.

The intersection between alcohol-related liver disease and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

You may need a medically supervised detox program to safely quit https://ecosoberhouse.com/ drinking and manage withdrawal symptoms. You may get an ultrasound, computerized tomography (CT) scans, or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). But they can’t tell whether you have simple fatty liver or MASH. There are some tests that can show whether you have fibrosis by measuring the stiffness of your liver.

• Avoiding alcohol, maintaining a healthy diet, and getting medical advice on physical activity, supplements, and protein intake can help support liver health in individuals with ALD.
• Additionally, the updated terminology demonstrates a better understanding of the underlying pathophysiology of the disease as metabolic dysfunction is central to the disease pathogenesis.

Alcoholic Liver Disease

• Overall, limiting alcohol intake in women with SLD, may be crucial as part of efforts to mitigate mortality risk41.
• Alcohol-related liver disease is liver damage caused by drinking too much alcohol for a long time.
• Risk may be increased in women because their digestive system may be less able to process alcohol, thus increasing the amount of alcohol reaching the liver.
• A doctor removes a sample of tissue from your liver and sends it to a lab to see if you have liver inflammation or damage.
• Older research highlighted in a 2024 literature review indicates that 90% to 95% of people who drink heavily develop fatty liver disease, or steatosis, in which fat builds up in the liver and other organs.

When the liver tissue starts to scar, the liver doesn’t work as well as before. As a result, the body can’t produce enough proteins or filter toxins out of the blood as it should. An test called transient elastography, which uses an ultrasound or magnetic resonance imaging, measures the stiffness of the liver, which can aid in diagnosing cirrhosis. In the United States, the consumption of alcohol is often woven into the fabric of social life. Close to 90% of adults in the United States have had an alcoholic beverage at some point in their life, and when asked about their drinking habits, around 55% report having had a drink within the past month.

History and Physical

Fatty liver is usually diagnosed in the asymptomatic patient who is undergoing evaluation for abnormal liver function tests; typically, aminotransferase levels are less than twice the upper limit of normal. Characteristic ultrasonographic findings include a hyperechoic liver with or without hepatomegaly. Computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can readily detect cirrhosis. On MRI, special features may be present with ALD including increased size of the caudate lobe, more frequent visualize of the right hepatic notch, and larger regenerative nodules. Liver biopsy is rarely needed to diagnose fatty liver in the appropriate clinical setting, but it may be useful in excluding steatohepatitis or fibrosis. The clinical definition of alcoholic hepatitis is a syndrome of liver failure where jaundice is a characteristic feature; fever and tender hepatomegaly are often present.

Even if examination and test results suggest alcohol-related liver disease, doctors periodically check for other forms of liver disease that can be treated, especially viral hepatitis. Other causes of liver problems may coexist and, if present, must be treated. Liver cancer develops in 10 to 15% of people with cirrhosis due to alcohol abuse. Heavy drinking can make the bands of fibrous tissue in the palms tighten, causing the fingers to curl (called Dupuytren contracture), and make the palms look red (called palmar erythema). Small spiderlike blood vessels (spider angiomas) may appear in the skin of the upper body. Salivary glands in the cheeks may enlarge, and muscles may waste away.

People may become undernourished because drinking too much alcohol, which has calories but little nutritional value, decreases the appetite. Also, the damage caused by alcohol can interfere with the absorption and processing of nutrients. People may have deficiencies of folate, thiamin, other vitamins, or minerals.

• Patients with alcoholic hepatitis are at risk of alcohol withdrawal.
• It doesn’t always cause symptoms, but you may have pain or discomfort on the upper right side of your belly.
• Granulocyte-colony stimulating factor has been proposed as an agent to stimulate liver regeneration in patients with alcoholic hepatitis by promoting migration of bone marrow derived stem cells into the liver.
• With complete alcohol avoidance and time to recover, the liver can often heal some of its damage from alcohol, allowing you to return to a normal life.
• This requirement theoretically has a dual advantage of predicting long-term sobriety and allowing recovery of liver function from acute alcoholic hepatitis.

Understanding alcohol-associated liver damage

The consumption of alcohol in quantities and patterns that lead to health problems, which can include chronic daily drinking and/or binge drinking13. In the past few years, alcohol consumption habits have changed, and the phenomenon of drinking too much too fast, termed binge drinking, is growing in Western countries, especially in the UK and northern Europe24. The most widely used definition of binge drinking is the consumption of five or more drinks for men and four or more drinks for women in about 2 h on alcoholic liver disease a single occasion or day25. It is important to note that subjects with SLD who had binge drinking for at least 13 days/year had a significantly increased risk of liver-related hospitalizations and mortality27 independent of average daily alcohol intake. Although monthly and less-than-monthly binges also displayed heightened risk estimates, the effect became statistically significant for weekly binge drinking27.