Clinical and morphologic changes in 155 autopsies with alcoholic disease during 1980–1998 studied in Baranovichi interdistrict pathologoanatomic department were studied. According to the data of morphologic study, several groups were distinguished in the structure of pathologoanatomic diagnosis and complications. The first group consisted of observations with predominant liver damage, the second – with alcoholic heart damage, the third – with alcoholic damage of the pancreas, the fourth – with croup pneumonia.

In alcoholic disease and in cases of chronic alcoholism, pathological changes occur in all internal organs with predominance of damage in one of them, which allows us to talk about the thanatogenetic significance of such lesions and to distinguish different forms of alcoholic disease. Alcoholic lesions of internal organs are characterized by fatty dystrophy, primarily of the liver and heart. Ethanol as a factor directly damaging cell membranes, tissue hypoxia caused by it, contribute to the development of sclerotic processes in the walls of vessels and stroma of organs, especially in the liver, heart, pancreas. However, it should be noted that the atherosclerotic process in those who died from complications of alcoholic disease and chronic alcoholism is expressed to a lesser extent than in non-drinkers and occurs mainly in elderly patients. The most significant changes occur in the liver. The cirrhosis of the liver developed in this case leads to portal hypertension, one of the manifestations of which is varicose veins of the esophagus, often complicated by bleeding from them, as well as liver failure. Heart damage in the form of alcoholic cardiomyopathy, predominantly of the dilated type, is very often observed. Of some importance is pancreatitis, which can run chronically, or acquire an acute form. In a number of cases, the cause of death in alcoholic disease is pneumonia.