Alcoholic Cirrhosis Imposes Financial Burden on US Healthcare

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May 25, 2018 – Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) is rising, with patients more likely to get diagnosed in the later stages of the disease. The result could eventually become higher healthcare costs in the US, according to a new study. Jessica Mellinger, MD, gastroenterologist and researcher at the University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, told MD Magazine her team had recently been seeing more patients with advanced alcohol-related liver disease. “When these patients with alcoholic cirrhosis are first diagnosed, they tend to be sicker and have more complications of liver disease, on average, than non-alcoholic cirrhosis patients, indicating that we are missing this diagnosis early,” Mellinger said. In addition to chronic alcohol abuse, other causes of cirrhosis include viral hepatitis C (HCV) and fat accumulation around the liver. Complications of cirrhosis include chronic infections, internal bleeding, jaundice, increased risk of liver cancer, and liver failure.