[Alcoholic hepatitis (author's transl)].

Among 64 patients with chronic alcoholic liver damage, alcoholic hepatitis was present in 30 cases. Varying degrees of inflammation with a different high amount of polymorphonuclear leukocytes as a consistent finding, hepatocellular necrosis, fatty change in the liver epithelium, hydropic swelling of some cells, liver alcoholic hyalin, bile duct proliferation and portal edema were found to be characteristic features of alcoholic hepatitis. Hepatocellular necrosis and fatty change in the liver epithelium always occurred in alcoholic hepatitis. There was a positive association between the severity of the remaining four histological features and that of the inflammatory basic finding. The characteristic inflammatory changes were often observed to be spotty in distribution.