[Histologic evolution of acute alcoholic hepatitis].

Although acute alcoholic hepatitis is a frequent disease with distinct histologic diagnosis, the prognostic factors of its evolution are largely unknown. The present report analyzes the data of 18 patients with acute alcoholic liver disease submitted to two liver biopsies with a mean interval of 35 months. The results demonstrate a favorable histologic evolution in six of seven patients that abandoned alcohol ingestion, and an evolution to chronic liver disease in the remaining case. Out of six patients with continuous alcohol ingestion the evolution was unfavorable in five, while one case evolved to healing. Centrilobular fibrosis disappeared in the six cases that discontinued alcohol ingestion and who had favorable evolution, and it persisted in four of the six patients that continued drinking. The results suggest that centrilobular fibrosis is not always an unfavorable prognostic marker, and that the evolution of acute alcoholic hepatitis is not exclusively dependent on the continuation of alcohol abuse.