Hepatic complications of antituberculous therapy

Drug hepatitis occurred in 0-32 per cent of 7492 patients receiving antituberculous therapy, while the overall incidence of drug reactions was estimated at 9 per cent. PAS was the most common cause of drug hepatitis among the 38 patients analysed. The clinical, biochemical and haematological picture of antituberculous drug hepatitis was found to be fairly uniform. However, the patients with definite PAS hepatitis had lower SGOT values than those in whom there was uncertainty whether PAS or INH was implicated. Premonitory symptoms were present in all but four patients before the onset of jaundice. One or more of the features associated with dry hypersensitivity reactions, such as fever, rashes, lymphadenopathy, arthralgia, leucocytosis, eosinophilia and atypical monocytes were present in 89 per cent of cases so that confusion with viral hepatitis seldom arose. Sensitization time was less than three months in all except three patients, who were considered to be suffering from viral hepatitis. While no patients with PAS hepatitis died, the overall mortality was 17 per cent. A review of the literature stresses the frequency of asymptomatic elevations of SGOT, the value of clinical surveillance during the early months of therapy and the importance of stopping all therapy immediately warning symptoms appear.