Background: In presumed decompensated alcoholic liver disease (ALD; liver decompensation, heavy alcohol intake, and negative results of noninvasive screening for other causes), liver biopsy is often performed to assess severity of liver injury and to rule out other liver diseases.
Aim: The aim of the study is to describe the spectrum of liver histology in such patients.
Methods: We reviewed all patients with presumed decompensated ALD seen between 1998 and 2004, in whom liver tissue was available for histology (N = 110).
Results: A total of 104 of the 110 patients had at least one of the histological features suggestive of ALD: fat, Mallory's hyalin, neutrophilic infiltrate, and hepatocyte ballooning. These features were more prevalent in tissue obtained within a month after presentation with decompensation than in that obtained before decompensation or more than 1 month after. These features were also associated with more severe liver dysfunction. Histology revealed a major additional diagnosis (Budd-Chiari syndrome) in only one case. In 41 patients biopsied within a month of first presentation with decompensation, Child score and Maddrey discriminant function (DF), but none of the histological features, were predictive of survival by Cox multivariate analysis. Of the 26 of these 41 patients with a Maddrey DF >32, 22 (85%) had alcoholic hepatitis.
Conclusions: In patients with presumed decompensated ALD, other liver diseases are uncommon. Routine liver biopsy is of limited added value but biopsy should be considered in those in whom the noninvasive workup, or failure to recover despite abstinence, raises the possibility of other liver diseases.