Autonomic neuropathy in patients with hepatic cirrhosis

Autonomic neuropathy has been reported in patients with alcoholic liver disease but information on its occurrence in patients with non-alcoholic liver disease is contradictory.

To assess autonomic functions in patients with alcoholic and non-alcoholic liver disease.

Autonomic function using five standard tests was examined in 20 cirrhotics (10 alcoholics and 10 non-alcoholics) and 20 age and sex matched controls. The extent of autonomic dysfunction was determined in the patients and a comparison between the characteristics of patients with and without autonomic neuropathy was made.

Sixteen (80%) of the cirrhotic subjects were found to have evidence of autonomic neuropathy. Of these, three (15%) patients had early parasympathetic damage, five (25%) had definite parasympathetic damage, and eight (40%) had combined (that is, both parasympathetic and sympathetic) damage. Nine (90%) of the alcoholics and seven (70%) of the non-alcoholics had autonomic dysfunction. Only one patient belonging to the alcoholic group had clinical evidence of peripheral neuropathy. Moreover, there was no significant association between subjective symptoms of autonomic neuropathy and objective evidence of autonomic damage as assessed by autonomic function tests. Autonomic dysfunction was significantly more frequent in advanced liver disease compared with early liver damage. Nine (75%) out of 12 cirrhotic subjects belonging to Child class B and six (85.7%) of the seven patients belonging to Child class C had autonomic neuropathy.

This study shows that autonomic neuropathy is common in cirrhotic subjects, that it is found with comparable frequency in alcoholics and non-alcoholics, and that it increases in severity with increase in extent of liver damage, suggesting that liver damage contributes to the neurological deficit.