Pattern of muscle and nerve pathology in alcoholism.

One hundred and ninety-one inpatients undergoing detoxification from alcoholism were studied electrodiagnostically. Of them, 115 (57%) exhibited muscle pathology; only 11 (5%) showed no electrodiagnostic evidence of pathology. A common occurrence in the more severely toxic patients was a phenomenon called "burst suppression," which revealed an inability of the patient to sustain a normal consistent firing of motor units upon muscle contration; the significance of this phenomenon is not thoroughly understood. Electrodiagnosis is a helpful tool in the diagnosis, prognosis, treatment, and follow-up of patients with alcoholism.