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Wernicke’s Encephalopathy in Alcohol Use Disorder Patients after Liver Transplantation: A Case Series and Review of Literature

Wernicke’s encephalopathy (WE) is an acute neurological disorder resulting from thiamine deficiency, commonly found in alcohol use disorder (AUD) patients. Liver transplantation (LT) could represent a risk factor for the onset of WE in AUD patients, due to the onset of chronic depletion of thiamine...

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Autores principales: Vassallo, Gabriele A., Mirijello, Antonio, Dionisi, Tommaso, Tarli, Claudia, Augello, Giuseppe, Gasbarrini, Antonio, Addolorato, Giovanni
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7761291/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33255603
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm9123809
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author Vassallo, Gabriele A.
Mirijello, Antonio
Dionisi, Tommaso
Tarli, Claudia
Augello, Giuseppe
Gasbarrini, Antonio
Addolorato, Giovanni
author_facet Vassallo, Gabriele A.
Mirijello, Antonio
Dionisi, Tommaso
Tarli, Claudia
Augello, Giuseppe
Gasbarrini, Antonio
Addolorato, Giovanni
author_sort Vassallo, Gabriele A.
collection PubMed
description Wernicke’s encephalopathy (WE) is an acute neurological disorder resulting from thiamine deficiency, commonly found in alcohol use disorder (AUD) patients. Liver transplantation (LT) could represent a risk factor for the onset of WE in AUD patients, due to the onset of chronic depletion of thiamine in this population and the high metabolic demand of surgery and the postoperative period. However, few data are available about the risk of the onset of WE in AUD patients after LT. Here we report three cases of AUD patients who developed WE with confusion and delirium after LT. Prompt parenteral administration of thiamine led to a rapid improvement of the clinical condition and a complete remission of neurological symptoms after 3–4 days. In addition, a search of the available English literature was conducted in order to perform a review of the possible association between the onset of WE and LT in AUD patients. A prophylactic treatment regimen based on the administration of thiamine could be suggested in AUD patients before and after LT. Further studies are needed to determine the optimal regimen of thiamine in the prevention of WE in this setting.
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spelling pubmed-77612912020-12-26 Wernicke’s Encephalopathy in Alcohol Use Disorder Patients after Liver Transplantation: A Case Series and Review of Literature Vassallo, Gabriele A. Mirijello, Antonio Dionisi, Tommaso Tarli, Claudia Augello, Giuseppe Gasbarrini, Antonio Addolorato, Giovanni J Clin Med Article Wernicke’s encephalopathy (WE) is an acute neurological disorder resulting from thiamine deficiency, commonly found in alcohol use disorder (AUD) patients. Liver transplantation (LT) could represent a risk factor for the onset of WE in AUD patients, due to the onset of chronic depletion of thiamine in this population and the high metabolic demand of surgery and the postoperative period. However, few data are available about the risk of the onset of WE in AUD patients after LT. Here we report three cases of AUD patients who developed WE with confusion and delirium after LT. Prompt parenteral administration of thiamine led to a rapid improvement of the clinical condition and a complete remission of neurological symptoms after 3–4 days. In addition, a search of the available English literature was conducted in order to perform a review of the possible association between the onset of WE and LT in AUD patients. A prophylactic treatment regimen based on the administration of thiamine could be suggested in AUD patients before and after LT. Further studies are needed to determine the optimal regimen of thiamine in the prevention of WE in this setting. MDPI 2020-11-25 /pmc/articles/PMC7761291/ /pubmed/33255603 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm9123809 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Vassallo, Gabriele A.
Mirijello, Antonio
Dionisi, Tommaso
Tarli, Claudia
Augello, Giuseppe
Gasbarrini, Antonio
Addolorato, Giovanni
Wernicke’s Encephalopathy in Alcohol Use Disorder Patients after Liver Transplantation: A Case Series and Review of Literature
title Wernicke’s Encephalopathy in Alcohol Use Disorder Patients after Liver Transplantation: A Case Series and Review of Literature
title_full Wernicke’s Encephalopathy in Alcohol Use Disorder Patients after Liver Transplantation: A Case Series and Review of Literature
title_fullStr Wernicke’s Encephalopathy in Alcohol Use Disorder Patients after Liver Transplantation: A Case Series and Review of Literature
title_full_unstemmed Wernicke’s Encephalopathy in Alcohol Use Disorder Patients after Liver Transplantation: A Case Series and Review of Literature
title_short Wernicke’s Encephalopathy in Alcohol Use Disorder Patients after Liver Transplantation: A Case Series and Review of Literature
title_sort wernicke’s encephalopathy in alcohol use disorder patients after liver transplantation: a case series and review of literature
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7761291/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33255603
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm9123809
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