Citation

Leube G, Mallach HJ. Blutalkohol 1980; 17(1): 15-25.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1980, International Committee on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety and Bund gegen Alkohol und Drogen im Straßenverkehr, Publisher Steintor Verlag)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The incorrect contention, widely adhered to even in medical circles, that alcohol is eliminated more slowly in patients suffering from hepatic diseases than in healthy subjects could be refuted over the last 20 years by American as well as by our own investigations. Solely in advanced cases of atrophic hepatic cirrhosis with extreme portal hypertension could a marked rate of alcohol elimination be seen. The experimental results of Pioch in patients with a portacaval shunt must be similarly interpreted. The slowing down of the alcohol elimination due to a reduction in the hepatic blood flow as shown by random sampling - a twofold test on a 41 year old hepatic patient with a termino-lateral anastomosis - could not be confirmed. Due to the problematic blood supply to the healthy, as well as to the cirrhotic, liver it seems to us very questionable whether a reduction in the alcohol elimination per time unit occurs. Serial investigations in this type of patient seem therefore to be necessary.