Alcoholic lung disease

Alcoholic lung disease
Diagram of respiratory system
Specialty	Respirology

Alcoholic lung disease is disease of the lungs caused by excessive alcohol. The term 'alcoholic lung disease' is not a generally accepted medical diagnosis, and "the association between alcohol abuse and acute lung injury remains largely unrecognized, even by lung researchers".^[1]

Chronic alcohol ingestion impairs multiple critical cellular functions in the lung. These cellular impairments lead to increased susceptibility to the serious complications from a pre-existing lung disease. Recent research cites alcoholic lung disease as comparable to liver disease in alcohol-related mortality.^[1] Alcoholics have a higher risk of developing acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and experience higher rates of mortality from ARDS when compared to non-alcoholics.

Alcohol use disorder can cause a susceptibility to infection after major trauma to the lungs / respiratory system. It creates an increased risk of aspiration of gastric acid, microbes from the upper part of the throat, decreased mucus-facilitated clearance of bacterial pathogens from the upper airway and impaired pulmonary host defenses. This increased colonization by pathogenic organisms, combined with the acute intoxicating effects of alcohol and the subsequent depression of the normally protective gag and cough reflexes, leads to more frequent and severe pneumonia from gram-negative organisms. Defects in the function of the upper airway's clearance mechanisms in alcoholic patients have been detected.