BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Hemorrhagic stroke (HS) is a major cause of disability and death worldwide. There is a dearth of information on HS from geographically defined populations in Latin America. In this study we assessed the importance of alcohol consumption as a risk factor for HS in Chile. METHODS: Case-control study in Santiago, Chile, of 140 consecutive patients with CT-confirmed HS, matched by sex and age with 140 hospital controls. Alcohol consumption was measured in grams (ethanol) per week, using a questionnaire administered to the patients or caregivers or both. We defined four categories of alcohol consumption: nondrinkers (0.0 g/week), light (0.1-115 g/week), moderate (116-402.5 g/week) and heavy drinkers (>402.5 g/week). Other variables measured included diabetes mellitus (DM), cigarette smoking, arterial hypertension, liver disease and chronic use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID). Statistical analysis was performed with STATA 6.0 software. RESULTS: A total of 280 subjects with a mean age of 65.5 years were studied over a 3-year period, 122 men (43.5%) and 158 women (56.5%). Alcohol intake was 394.1 g/week among cases and 174.5 g/week in controls (p=0.01). The following odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were found: hypertension 4.89 (2.86-10.3) and chronic use of NSAID 3.44 (2.15-12.9). Using conditional logistic regression analysis high alcohol intake was found to have a statistically significant OR of 4.47 (CI 1.14-17.2). CONCLUSIONS: In Chile, a high alcohol intake (>402.5 g/week) increased more than 4 times the risk of HS and remained a significant risk factor for HS after controlling for hypertension, cigarette smoking, liver disease, blood cholesterol levels, and chronic use of NSAID. The risk was higher in younger patients (<65 years of age).