[Drug-induced hepatic diseases]

The contribution of drugs to hepatic disorders, long viewed as insignificant, is now widely recognized. Advances have been made over the last few years in our understanding of the mechanisms underlying drug-induced hepatic injury. Conversion of drugs to toxic or reactive metabolites has been demonstrated. Drugs can induce the full range of hepatic disorders, and the diagnostic approach is the same as for the other causes of liver disease. The evaluation of the hepatotoxicity of drugs requires use of available classification schemes for assigning causal relationships with drugs. Over 1000 drugs have been incriminated in the occurrence of hepatic lesions. Hepatox is a computerized database that has become vital to the storage of new information. Part of the contents of the Hepatox database is presented in this article.