[Problems around liver transplantation for alcoholic liver diseases--from the standpoint of alcoholic treatment].

Liver transplantations for alcoholic liver diseases have been carried out recently in domestic medical treatment institutions. It is assumed that a lot of people who have alcoholic liver diseases and have no alternatives except for liver transplantation to sustain their life are alcoholics. Those people need treatment aimed at abstinence from before liver transplantation is carried out. Continuance of abstinence is also required after the operation. To the other family members, sufficient education about alcoholic is necessary, because there is a possibility that denial, which is a feature of alcoholic symptoms, can be strengthened by the operation of liver transplantation. If the patient restart drinking alcohol after the liver transplantation, there is a high likelihood that the family will collapse. There is a deep concern that the objectives for alcoholic treatment, "focusing on time and place" and "enhancing humanity," associated with the treatment of alcoholics, can be viewed as not important, because problems of liver transplantation for alcoholic liver diseases are summarized to "the problem of one organ to be mortal" because of the urgency of the problem.