No impact of COVID‐19 epidemic on decompensation of alcoholic liver disease: Results from a single centre in Milan

We read with interest the paper by Gonzalez et al., 1 reporting an increase in alcohol- related hepatitis hospital admissions during the Covid pandemia. This finding confirms the negative impact of quarantine measures, that through social isolation may trigger alcohol misuse, and an increase in alcohol use disorders (AUDs). Conflicting reports about alcohol habits during the pandemia have been published. In France an increase in alcohol intake was observed in 24.8% of the population. 2 In 182 patients with pre- existing AUD in the UK, 3 43 (24%) reported an increase in alcohol intake, while 34 (19%) a reduction. Conversely, a wastewater analysis in Australia showed a significant decrease in alcohol consumption in April 2020 compared to previous years. 4 We designed a retrospective study including all patients admitted to our Hospital for acute decompensation of alcoholic liver disease (ALD) between January 2015 and December 2020. Patients were identified searching the ICD- code for ‘alcoholic acute hepatitis’ (571.1) or ‘alcoholic liver cirrhosis’ (571.2). Annual incidences were calculated. In 72 months, we reported 262 admissions for decompensation of ALD, splitted as follows: 27 in 2015 (3.1/1000 admissions), 42 in 2016 (4.8/1000), 57 in 2017 (6.2/1000), 45 in 2018 (4.8/1000), 51 in 2019 (5.6/1000) and 40 in 2020 (5.8/1000). ALD p