Acute alcoholic myopathy.

Muscle disease associated with alcohol abuse is more common than is generally realized. The chronic painless form of alcohol myopathy is thought by some to be an atypical neuropathy. Patients with the acute painful variety have pain, swelling, tenderness, cramps and weakness in one or more muscle groups, usually after an alcoholic binge. Clinical differentiation of this form of myopathy from deep vein thrombosis can be challenging. Ethanol and its metabolite, acetaldehyde, have direct pathologic effects on skeletal muscle.