5 treatments vs. alcoholic hepatitis

• April 27, 2024

The hepatitis alcoholic is an acute inflammation of the liver and is a disease mortal with limited treatment alternatives, that's why abstinence is important to prevent the liver from suffering more damage.

In some cases, the damage caused by alcoholic hepatitis can be reversed when patients stop drinking. However, early detection of the disease, through blood and urine tests, and proper treatment can help reduce symptoms. To know a little more we present you five treatments against this disease:

1.- Abstinence : This is the first step to stop damaging the liver, because if patients continue to drink, alcoholic hepatitis can progress to cirrhosis and liver failure.

2.- Give up smoking : Eliminating this habit would help decrease the speed of the disease .

3.- Balance diet : The patient must be well nourished, so that the body improves the ability to absorb nutrients. A diet with adequate amount of protein and supplemented with vitamins B, C, K and folic acid, can help. Obesity also exacerbates the disease alcoholic liver

4.- Medicines : Medicines are sometimes used to treat alcoholic hepatitis, although there is not much consensus about their effectiveness. Among some alternative drugs are: corticosteroids , which are the most investigated drugs for the treatment of this condition, but the studies show variable results.

The results suggest that with the corticosteroids it could improve the survival of patients with severe hepatitis and hepatic encephalopathy, which is a syndrome of brain damage due to alcoholic hepatitis. The pentoxifylline It is a drug that promotes blood flow because it decreases blood viscosity and improves the short-term survival of patients with alcoholic hepatitis. This is a very used treatment.

5.- Liver transplant : It is an alternative for people with disease terminal alcoholic liver disease. However, due in part to the lack of living donors, only 6% of the terminally ill receive a transplant .

Many centers of transplant they require six months of alcohol withdrawal before considering doing so, and some patients improve during abstinence without needing more the transplant. Among people who undergo transplantation, the survival rate at seven years is around 60%, similar or better to the result of transplants due to other diseases hepatic

Learn more about alcoholic hepatitis

The cause of alcoholic hepatitis is the injury and inflammation that occurred in the liver in response to prolonged and excessive alcohol consumption. In men, drinking between four and eight drinks a day is considered a risk factor for the development of it; and in women, more than 3 or 5 drinks a day.

The disease develops between 10 and 35% of people who abuse alcohol. It seems that some undefined genetic factors increase the risk of alcoholic hepatitis.

Alcoholic hepatitis is more common among men, but women develop the more severe types of the disease, although they consume less alcohol. One possible reason for this is that although women and men drink the same amount of alcohol, female blood shows higher alcohol content. This is maintained, even after taking into account the differences in the weight bodily.

Early-stage alcoholic hepatitis does not present symptoms in some people, while in others, symptoms are general, such as nausea, vomiting, weight loss, weakness, pain, fever, jaundice, and diarrhea.

A hepatologist, who is a specialist in diseases Hepatic, is the best option to treat a person diagnosed with alcoholic hepatitis. If it is not convenient to go to a hepatologist, then a gastroenterologist or an internal medicine specialist with experience in these conditions  hepatic would be other good alternatives.

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