[Liver damage from alcohol in the elderly. Morphological, biohumoral and clinical aspects. Therapeutic measures]

Having briefly analyzed the metabolism of ethanol in the human organism, the author describes hepatocellular damage induced by chronic alcohol abuse in old men. The evidence of great resistance of the senile liver to alcohol-induced damage is stressed as well as histological, biohumoral and clinical features of steatosis, chronic hepatitis, acute hepatitis and cirrhosis. Further, the author discusses the most suitable dietary and pharmacologic measures to be utilized in the above-mentioned phase of the liver disease due to chronic alcohol abuse.