CLINICAL, FUNCTIONAL AND NEEDLE BIOPSY STUDY OF THE LIVER IN ALCOHOLISM

Abstract

THE DEVELOPMENT and increased use of the needle biopsy technic for the purpose of obtaining specimens of the liver have widened the field for the study of hepatic disease.¹ Among the published investigations several are concerned with the hepatic changes observed in alcoholism.² The purpose of this communication is to present the clinical, functional and histologic observations on a group of alcoholic patients and to describe the histologic changes in the liver noted at short intervals in the absence of specific therapy. Patients with obviously far advanced hepatic disease were excluded in the hope that early or limited lesions might be observed and their possible significance evaluated. MATERIAL AND METHODS Sixty-three patients who entered the hospital because of acute alcoholism were observed. Two were studied on two separate occasions. With few exceptions these patients were also chronic alcoholics. In most patients there were no physical signs indicative of