This site is intended for healthcare professionals

Go to /sign-in page

You can view 5 more pages without signing in

Alcoholic fatty liver

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

Authoring team

A fatty liver refers to an abnormal accumulation of fat within liver parenchymal cells.

Alcohol, at least in industrialised countries, is the most common cause of fatty liver. Alcohol is a hepatotoxin that alters mitochondrial and microsomal function.

Increased free fatty acid synthesis, diminished triglyceride utilisation, decreased fatty acid oxidation, a block in lipoprotein excretion, and enhanced lipolysis - thus increasing delivery and uptake of free fatty acids - have all been indicated in alcohol-induced fatty liver.

Fatty change in the liver is universal 3 to 7 days after a large amount of alcohol is consumed. It lasts for 2 to 4 weeks.


Related pages

Create an account to add page annotations

Annotations allow you to add information to this page that would be handy to have on hand during a consultation. E.g. a website or number. This information will always show when you visit this page.