Purpose of review: The COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with a change in alcohol consumption, resulting in an increase in alcohol-related liver disease. In this study, we reviewed the literature on (acute) alcohol-associated hepatitis (AH) in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methodology: PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Library, and the pre-print servers medRxiv and bioRxiv were searched to retrieve 320 articles of which 15 abstracts, 7 full-text articles, 4 letters, 1 case report, and 1 poster were included for the final structured review.
Recent findings: The pandemic resulted in an increase in healthcare utilization related to alcohol consumption. Admissions related to AH increased by 50% (range: 11-100%) during this time, which was disproportionally high in women, younger adults, African Americans, Hispanics, and patients living in rural areas. During this period, the number of new waiting list registrations and candidates with AH receiving liver transplantation (LT) simultaneously increased, which highlights the need for an approach to providing improvised healthcare services at the regional and individual levels.
Keywords: (Acute) alcohol-associated hepatitis; Alcohol hepatitis; COVID-19; Coronavirus; Pandemic.
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