CHRONIC INTRAVENOUS HEROIN ABUSE: IMPACT ON THE LIVER

Abstract

Summary. Intravenous (i.v.) heroin intake leads to significant morphological changes in the liver tissue (vesicular changes, fat changes, chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis). The intensity of these changes increases with duration of heroin usage. Direct hepatoxic effects of heroin are vesicular changes in hepatocytes, fat changes are the result of chronic influence of alcohol, whereas the rest of the morphological lesions to the liver are the result of the interaction of heroin, viral infection and alcohol. We analyzed a total of 50 autopsies, 40 from the group of i.v. heroin users and 10 from the control group (dead bodies of young and healthy people with mechanical injuries that did not affect the liver). For ease of analysis, all autopsy cases of i.v. heroin abuse were divided into 4 groups according to the duration of intravenous heroin intake: 2 years, between 2 and 5 years, between 5 and 10 years, and longer than 10 years.