Medical Treatment of Alcoholic Liver Disease / 대한소화기학회지

ABSTRACT

Alcoholic liver disease is a major cause of liver disease that results in significant morbidity and mortality in Korea. Abstinence isthe most important strategy to prevent disease progression. Corticosteroids improve the one-month survival in patients with severealcoholic hepatitis, but it was not effective on long-term survival. An N-acetylcysteine treatment combined with corticosteroidsmay provide a short-term survival benefit than corticosteroids alone. Pentoxifylline is unlikely to affect short-termsurvival. Hence, studies on new therapies, such as granulocyte colony-stimulating factor and fecal microbiota transplantation, areongoing. This paper briefly reviews the current knowledge of the medical treatment of alcoholic liver disease.