Alcohol-related deaths in the West of Ireland

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.