Hepatic encephalopathy--a serious complication of alcoholic liver disease

HE is a serious complication of alcoholic liver disease that contributes to cognitive dysfunction in chronic alcoholic patients. In patients with HE, the damaged liver can no longer remove neurotoxic substances such as ammonia and manganese from the blood. As a result, these molecules may enter the brain, where they can exert a variety of harmful effects that interfere with normal neurotransmitter activity, impair motor functions, and cause structural alterations in the astrocytes. To prevent or treat HE in alcoholic patients with cirrhosis, physicians currently rely primarily on strategies to lower blood ammonia concentrations as well as on liver transplantation in patients with end-stage liver disease; new approaches also are also being investigated.