Background: Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) is caused by chronic drinking. The amount and duration of drinking which develop ALD have been reported variously for the different studies. Also the state of liver is various from normal liver to liver cirrhosis or hepatoma for chronic drinkers. Even though the interest on the ALD is growing recently due to the increase of the drinking population and the alcohol consumption in Korea, the clinical research is still insufficient. So this study was started to get the characteristics of the histologic pattern of ALD, required minimum amount of alcohol to develop ALD and clinical differences in various types in Korea. Methods: Authors analysed drinking history, clinical and laboratory findings of 126 patients who were con- firmed as ALD by liver biopsy. Results: 1) In histologic types, 13 fatty liver, 2 alcoholic hepatitis, 69 alcoholic hepatic fibrosis, 18 alcoholic chronic active hepatitis and 24 liver cirrhosis were found. 2) The subjects were 42. 7 years old in average with no difference in types, all male except 2 cases. 3) 106 patients whose drinking history was known drank 149.9 gm per day and 808.3 kg in total amout in average. Alcoholic chronic active hepatitis or liver cirrhosis patients drank more than fatty liver patients in daily amount (p < 0. 05), but the duration of drinking had no difference in types with 16.9 years in average. Also 98.1% of the subjects drank more than 45 gm of alcohol in daily average and 99.1% of the subjects had been drinking for more than 3 years. 4) Symptoms were various such as fatigue or general weakness, abdominal pain, nausea or vomiting, anorexia. Physical signs were also various such as hepatomegaly, jaundice and spider angioma. But any statistical meaning between types cannot be given due to the small number of subjects. 5) In hematologic and biochemical tests, the albumin level was lower in liver cirrhosis than fatty liver or alcoholic hepatic fibrosis (p<0.05), and the platelet count was lower in alcoholic chronic active hepatitis or liver cirrhosis than fatty liver or alcoholic hepatic fibrosis (p<0.05), but there was no laboratory finding to distinguish the types. Conclusions: Results of this study suggest that alcoholic hepatitis is rare and alcoholic hepatic fibrosis is the most frequent in histologic types of ALD. 98,1% of the subjects drank more than 45 gm of alcohol in daily average for more than 3 years. The types of ALD cannot be distinguished by the symptoms, physical signs, hematologic and biochemical tests.