Does alcohol-related brain damage lengthen hospital stays?

What is it about?

An earlier article showed that people with alcohol-related liver disease stay longer in hospital than similar people with other forms of liver disease. My letter suggested that brain damage from alcohol could account for some of this extra time needed before people could go home from hospital. South Australia once had specialist psychiatric wards to help people with brain damage from alcohol, but they closed more than a decade before this study.

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Why is it important?

Hospital teams dealing with liver disease are concerned about length of stay. It may be necessary to add a specific focus on possible cognitive impairment, which has not generally been seen as core business for hepatologists. If alcohol-related brain damage is recognised, and better managed, outcomes should improve.