An analysis of 276 cases of drug-induced liver damage / 中华肝脏病杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>Drug-induced liver damage is a potential complication from using many drugs. The aim of our study was to analyze the etiology and clinical features of drug-induced liver damage, in order to draw more attention to this problem.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Two hundred and seventy-six cases over a 5-year period in Jiangsu Province Hospital were retrospectively analyzed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>A variety of drugs, including traditional Chinese medicines (26.1% of our total cases) and anticancer drugs (17%) caused liver damage. The main clinical manifestations of it were fatigue, nausea, vomiting and jaundice. In 88% of our cases the symptoms were relieved or completely disappeared, but there was still a 5.1% mortality rate.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The clinical features of drug-induced liver damage are of no specificity, and the mortality of it is not low. Liver function should be monitored when suspected drugs are prescribed.</p>