Drug Hepatitis At AINS

Hepatic lesions induced by drugs include extremely diverse various clinical, biological and histological manifestations that can determine acute or chronic hepatobiliary disease. The term of hepatitis is recommended to be used when there is a histological confirmation. In the last decades a 11 time increase of the hepatic lesions induced by drugs is reported, due both to the increase of the number of used drugs but also by their more frequent recognition.

We carried out a combined retrospective study and longitudinally prospective study that included patients with drug hepatitis. In our study there were 83 cases of drug hepatitis at AINS, which represents 33.46 % of the total number of 248 patients with drug hepatitis. In our study the highest drug hepatitis at AINS were Nimesulid (24 cases), followed by Diclofenac (21 cases), and the fewest at Piroxicam (9 cases). All the cases from the study were symptomatic, showing the increase of the cytolysis enzymes and sometimes cholestasis enzymes (mainly GGT).

The average age at diagnosis was 60.1 years for the 248 patients, being lower for the male gender (57.47 years), compared to the female gender (61.26 years). Women were affected in the highest degree, 69.35% being women and 30.64% men. In our study drug hepatitis by hepatic cytolysis was dominant, more frequent than the cholestatic ones.