[Alcohol and gastrointestinal tract (author's transl)].

Alcohol drinking induces acute and chronic lesions of the GI tract; some other GI disorders do occur more frequently in drinkers than in other persons. Alcoholics suffer from gastroesophageal reflux, Barrett's syndrome, exophageal cancer and Mallory-Weiss syndrome as well as from hemorrhagic erosive gastritis more often than normal. It is still unsettled if chronic gastritis can be due to alcohol drinking. Alcohol inhibits to some degree the absorption of water, electrolytes, disaccharides and vitamin B12 in the small intestine; it may as well impair intestinal motility and cause diarrhea. Many aspects of the effects of alcohol on the GI tract still remain to be elucidated. The main stay of therapy is abstenence.