Send heavy drinkers for liver scan, GPs told

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Northerner

Northerner

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Women who regularly drink more than three-and-a-half bottles of wine a week should get their livers checked, says new draft advice for England.

For men, the threshold is five bottles of wine a week or 50 units of alcohol, says the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.

The organisation says GPs should refer "harmful" drinkers for liver scans.

Cirrhosis can be silent until the damage becomes so extensive it stops the liver working.

It usually takes years for the condition to reach this stage of organ failure.

Anyone who has been drinking harmful amounts for months should get scanned, say the draft recommendations.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38364331
 
Aye, the advice towards the end discusses a little known but very real risk of liver fibrosis and cirrhosis, and that's oesophageal varicose veins. They are killers, and I've seen it happen.

We had a patient, long history of drinking and known liver disease, who had been admitted for surgical treatment of his oesophageal varices. Not long after he was admitted, an urgent call went out because he had vomited a little blood. We all turned up, just as a he gave a violent cough and spattered blood everywhere. As curtains were pulled round the bed, and with the GI consultant attempting to get something down his oesophagus, he simply exsanguinated. Over the bed, over the floor, everywhere. Most of his blood being now outside of his body, and all over us, he died.

That's what booze can do. Everybody just thinks it's liver damage. Just pray the liver failure kills you before the oesophageal varices veins do.

I apologise for the graphic content. Just be grateful I didn't tell you everything.
 
See, I was unaware of that Mike - people really should be made more aware. I think that the message that often comes over is that livers can 'heal themselves', so reduces the 'fear factor' with drinking (whether true or not). :(
 
Yes, livers can heal themselves to a degree, but there comes a point when there aren't enough healthy cells to do it. Then you turn yellow and die, if you are lucky. (See above). Or you get a transplant, which is an expensive waste of time and money in most alcoholics. Even that plays in the mind of drinkers - I'll just get a liver transplant. Well, I think there are a few Hep C patients who have been made ill by grubby transfusions are ahead in the queue.
 
If that doesn't keep me out of the pub, nothing will! Eek! 😱
 
The report covers only liver conditions, of course. Another consequence of heavy drinking, particularly binge drinking, is acute pancreatitis, an extremely painful life threatening condition, usually requiring full support in an ICU while your pancreas eats itself. Recurrent episodes result in chronic pancreatitis and diabetes.

Before all the creonistas on the forum start screaming, alcohol only represents 30% of acute and chronic pancreatitis, and doesn't apply, as far as I am aware, to any of us.
 
mikeyB said:
The report covers only liver conditions, of course. Another consequence of heavy drinking, particularly binge drinking, is acute pancreatitis, an extremely painful life threatening condition, usually requiring full support in an ICU while your pancreas eats itself. Recurrent episodes result in chronic pancreatitis and diabetes.

Before all the creonistas on the forum start screaming, alcohol only represents 30% of acute and chronic pancreatitis, and doesn't apply, as far as I am aware, to any of us.
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Yes I had horrific episodes of non alcoholic acute pancreatitis when a stone lodged in my bile duct. Doctors often say it's one of the most severe pains you can experience and I'd attest to that. They had an ICU bed waiting for me and the doctor actually shrieked when she saw I'd taken my various drip stands and clanked along to the day room to watch Emmerdale! 😱 Not funny though and at the time I hadn't realised how sick I was.
 
Amigo said:
Yes I had horrific episodes of non alcoholic acute pancreatitis when a stone lodged in my bile duct. Doctors often say it's one of the most severe pains you can experience and I'd attest to that. They had an ICU bed waiting for me and the doctor actually shrieked when she saw I'd taken my various drip stands and clanked along to the day room to watch Emmerdale! 😱 Not funny though and at the time I hadn't realised how sick I was.
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When I was diagnosed the A&E doctor asked me if I'd ever had pancreatitis. I said, how would I know? He said, oh you'd know! 😱
 
I didn't know. I got all the way to chronic pancreatitis without any pain at all.
 
Amigo said:
Yes I had horrific episodes of non alcoholic acute pancreatitis when a stone lodged in my bile duct. Doctors often say it's one of the most severe pains you can experience and I'd attest to that. They had an ICU bed waiting for me and the doctor actually shrieked when she saw I'd taken my various drip stands and clanked along to the day room to watch Emmerdale! 😱 Not funny though and at the time I hadn't realised how sick I was.
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You hadn't lit a fag as well, surely 😱
 
mikeyB said:
You hadn't lit a fag as well, surely 😱
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Certainly not! 🙄 However they did still smoke in the day rooms then. I had a nasal gastric tube, catheterised and on a saline drip so I had to walk carefully manoeuvering two drip stands without pulling anything out. I must have looked dreadful because the others in the Day room looked quite alarmed when I struggled in. I broke the atmosphere when I carefully sat down and said, 'and to think I only came in with wind!' :D
 
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