Acute ethanol-related nervous system injuries

Abstract

Acute ethanol intoxication has a diversity of clinical pictures that extend from mere euphoria to severe neurological impairment culminating in coma. Although the majority of cases have a reversible and benign course, the situation needs a careful medical monitoring. Authors describe pharmacological aspects of the acute ethanol intoxication, with organs and systems affected during the consumption of exaggerated quantities. Correlations between blood alcohol concentration and neurological symptomatology are given, and a brief discussion of the criteria for the acute intoxication is made. The fact that this occurrence has been of little attention is due not only to the reversibility of the majority of symptoms, but also because that medical research has been ever since focused more on chronic diseases related to alcohol abuse, withdrawal syndrome and recently with hangover as an independent situation. With no specific antidote actually at hand, treatment is symptom-oriented and the pharmacological armamentarium is richer when it comes to dealing with withdrawal, abstinence and other chronic complications of ethanol abuse.