Nerve damage from alcoholism reversed after liver trans...( e from a chair and negotiate stairs nor...),Health

The authors maintain that the patient's neuropathy was due not just to alcohol, but that liver failure played a major role in the disease. Symptoms of both conditions progressed simultaneously and the neuropathy had failed to improve despite nine months of abstinence, but did improve following the transplant.

"We initially considered the peripheral neuropathy in our patient to be a contraindication to OLT [orthotopic liver transplantation] due to its significant impact on his quality of life and the uncertainty about its prognosis following transplantation," the authors conclude. "Our experience with this patient suggests that peripheral neuropathy in a patient with alcoholic cirrhosis is reversible and should not constitute a contraindication to OLT, even when the neuropathy is disabling."

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Contact: David Greenberg
dgreenbe@wiley.com
201-748-6484
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
1-Dec-2004