[Liver damage in alcoholics].

The authors made a liver biopsy in a group of 42 persons chronically abusing alcohol. In the majority of patients the authors found various forms of hepatopathology: fatty degeneration--8 cases (19%), alcoholic hepatitis--10 cases (24%), chronic active hepatitis--11 cases (26%), and hepatocirrhosis--2 cases (5%). The authors found no correlation between the kind and degree of liver damage and the amount of alcohol drunk, which suggests the role of individual hypersensitivity in the development of hepatopathology in alcoholics. In some of the alcoholics liver damage was connected with infection by HBV--5 cases (12%) and the participation of alcohol in the pathogenesis of chronic active hepatitis seems likely but it still remains not verified. The results of the investigation carried out point to the need of histological examination of the liver in alcoholics.