Study: Alcoholism Often Leaves LiverTransplant Recipients Disoriented

A lifetime of heavy-drinking can leave some patients dazed and confused after a liver transplant, according to Mayo Clinic researchers.

Reporting in the journal Neurology, the researchers said 19 out of 40 alcoholic liver disease patients experienced an acute state of confusion after their transplant surgery compared with only 3 out of 47 hepatitis C patients receiving a liver transplant.

"This study found that alcoholics are much more confused than other patients following liver transplant," says Dr.E. F. M. Wijdicks, a Mayo Clinic neurologist.

In the study, postoperative confusion included disorientation or agitation for more than three days or that necessitated hospital admission.

Wijdicks attributed the postoperative confusion and delirium in alcoholic-liver disease patients to two major causes:

1. High levels of ammonia, a toxin that an unhealthy liver may no longer be able to convert to urea and excrete via the kidney and;
2. Brain damage from alcohol.

The Mayo Clinic requires that all candidates for a liver transplant for alcoholic-liver disease abstain from all alcohol for a period of six months prior to surgery and participat in a rehabilitation program involving random urine and blood-alcohol tests.

Other sources: Mayo Clinic