Alcohol-related neurological disorders

Subcategories

• 8D44.0 Alcoholic polyneuropathy
• 8D44.1 Alcoholic myopathy

  Myopathy secondary to alcohol use and includes acute and chronic alcoholic myopathy. Several forms have been described: acute necrotizing myopathy, acute hypokalaemic myopathy, chronic alcoholic myopathy, asymptomatic alcoholic myopathy, and alcoholic cardiomyopathy. [1]

  Signs & symptoms: Patients with alcoholism can develop an acute or a chronic myopathy. The acute myopathy presents as rhabdomyolysis or myoglobinuria, and is preceded by muscle oedema and pain. It can recur if the patient resumes drinking. Acute myopathy in patients with alcoholism may also be related to hypokalaemia when the serum kalium concentration is below 2.5 mEq. This myopathy is painless, is not accompanied by muscle swelling and is quickly reversible. Proximal muscle weakness in patients with long-term alcoholism is often multifactorial and is not necessarily due to a primary myopathic process; for example, poor nutrition, inactivity or neurogenic disease may by involved.

  Investigation findings: Variable. Normal or slightly elevated serum CK, reduced amplitudes of the sensory and occasionally, motor nerve conductions, needle EMG reveal positive sharp waves, fibrillation potentials, and early recruitment of short-duration, low-amplitude MUAPs firing at the high rates with minimal force production in weak muscles.

References

1. World Health Organization. International Classification of Diseases, 11th Revision, for Mortality and Morbidity Statistics (ICD-11 MMS), 2026-01 release. World Health Organization; 2026.

WHO text reproduced without changes from the WHO ICD-11 API. © World Health Organization, licensed under CC BY-ND 3.0 IGO. View this entry in the WHO ICD-11 browser.