Alcoholic Hepatitis Superimposed on Cirrhosis. Clinical Significance and Effect of Long-term Prednisone Treatment

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Abstract
Of 483 patients with biopsy-verified cirrhosis who entered the controlled trial of prednisone treatment conducted by the Copenhagen [Denmark] Study Group for Liver Diseases, 99 had alcoholic hepatitis as defined by morphological criteria in the initial biopsy. The maximum period of observation varied from 5-12 yr. The survival of prednisone-treated patients (median survival time 38 mo.) and placebo-treated patients (median survival time 34 mo.) with alcoholic hepatitis did not differ significantly. This was also true for each of the 2 subgroups comprising mild and severe cases, respectively. The presence of morphologically defined alcoholic hepatitis was positively correlated with the daily consumption of alcohol but poorly correlated with the clinical syndrome usually attributed to alcoholic hepatitis.