Treatment

Treatment for alcoholic hepatitis involves quitting drinking and therapies to ease the signs and symptoms of liver damage.

Quitting drinking

If you've been diagnosed with alcoholic hepatitis, you must stop drinking alcohol and never drink alcohol again. It's the only way to possibly reverse liver damage or prevent the disease from worsening. People who don't stop drinking are likely to develop a variety of life-threatening health problems.

If you are dependent on alcohol and want to stop drinking, your doctor can recommend a therapy that's tailored for your needs. It can be dangerous to stop drinking suddenly so if you're dependent, be sure to discuss a plan with your doctor.

Treatment might include:

• Medications
• Counseling
• Alcoholics Anonymous or other support groups
• Outpatient or residential treatment program

Treatment for malnutrition

Your doctor might recommend a special diet to correct nutritional problems. You might be referred to a dietitian who can suggest ways to increase your consumption of the vitamins and nutrients you lack.

If you have trouble eating, your doctor might recommend tube feeding. A tube is passed down your throat or through your side and into your stomach. A special nutrient-rich liquid diet is then passed through the tube.

Medications to reduce liver inflammation

If you have severe alcoholic hepatitis, your doctor might recommend:

• Corticosteroids. These medications have shown some short-term benefit in increasing the survival of certain people with severe alcoholic hepatitis. However, corticosteroids have serious side effects and generally aren't prescribed if you have failing kidneys, gastrointestinal bleeding or an infection.
• Pentoxifylline.Your doctor might recommend this anti-inflammatory medication if you can't take corticosteroids. The benefit of pentoxifylline (Pentoxil) for alcoholic hepatitis isn't clear. Study results are inconsistent.

Liver transplant

For many people with severe alcoholic hepatitis, the risk of death is high without a liver transplant.

Historically, those with alcoholic hepatitis have not been liver transplant candidates because of the risk that they will return to harmful drinking after transplant. Recent studies, however, suggest that carefully selected patients with severe alcoholic hepatitis have post-transplant survival rates similar to those of liver transplant recipients with other types of liver disease.

For transplant to be an option, you would need:

• To find a program that works with liver transplant patients who have alcoholic hepatitis
• To meet the requirements of the program, which would include lifelong commitment to alcohol abstinence as well as other requirements of the specific transplant center