1977 Volume 18 Issue 8 Pages 555-564
The patients in this study were 43 and 53 year-old men. They were constant drinkers and consumed over 150 g of ethanol per day for a period of 20 to 30 years before initial hospitalization. They had alcoholic hepatitis, with and without cirrhosis. Alcoholic hepatitis subsided after 2 months of admission. After hospitalization, the patient who had abstained returned to their previous drinking habits. They had repeated attacks of hepatitis on 6 to 7 occasions within a space of 4 to 5 years. Laparoscopic examination and liver biopsy were undertaken repeatedly during the 4 to 5 year follow-up period. In these observations, cirrhosis developed in one patient with alcoholic hepatitis within 2 years. In the other patients, the transition of portal cirrhosis to postnecrotic cirrhosis occurred within 1 year.
In this report, it is revealed that alcoholic hepatitis plays a prominent role in the progressionof cirrhosis.
