Alcoholic hepatitis treatments fail to keep patients alive

The main drugs used to treat alcoholic hepatitis are not effective at increasing patients' survival, a major study has found. In a trial of over 1,000 patients, prednisolone and pentoxifylline, treatments recommended in international guidelines, did not achieve a statistically significant reduction in mortality after 28 days, 90 days or a year. The authors of the study, which is published today in the New England Journal of Medicine , say there is an urgent need for more research into prevention and treatment of alcohol-related liver disease. Deaths from liver disease increased by 40 per cent in England and Wales from 2001 to 2012, partly driven by a rise in alcohol consumption. Alcoholic liver disease was responsible for 4,425 deaths in 2012. Excessive alcohol consumption first causes fat to build up in the liver, which is potentially reversible. Alcoholic hepatitis is a dramatic manifestation of alcohol-related liver disease, associated with jaundice and liver failure.