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Alcohol-related deaths in the West of Ireland

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Summary

A Review of alcohol-related deaths which came to post-mortem in this department over the period 1947 to 1973 inclusive is presented.

An alcohol-related death for the purpose of the study is one in which alcoholic hepatitis or portal cirrhosis was found at necropsy or where the alcohol level estimated on a urine sample taken post-mortem was greater than 150 mg./100 ml.

There has been an increase in the frequency of alcohol-related deaths over the period studied; the increase was most marked in recent years and the highest figure was for 1972—12.1 per cent of all adult necropsies.

The age and sex distribution and the mode of death in the alcohol-related deaths is documented.

The incidence of alcoholic liver disease in the group of cases selected on the basis of a high urine alcohol is compared with that of a control series of 100 consecutive adult coroner’s necropsies. The incidence of portal cirrhosis and of alcoholic hepatitis in the alcohol-related group was found to be six times that of the control series.

The post-mortem incidence of portal cirrhosis over the period is reported. The highest incidence was for the five year period 1969–1973—1.67 per cent of adult post-mortems.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University Department of Pathology, Regional Hospital, Galway

    Michael J. O’Brien, John D. Kennedy & Malcolm P. G. Little

Authors
  1. Michael J. O’Brien
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  2. John D. Kennedy
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  3. Malcolm P. G. Little
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O’Brien, M.J., Kennedy, J.D. & Little, M.P.G. Alcohol-related deaths in the West of Ireland. IJMS 144, 293–303 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02939029

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02939029

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