[Acute renal failure and hepatitis induced by clometacin]

Various types of allergic accidents have been reported with clometacin (Duperan), a synthetic analgesic introduced in France in 1971. The most prominent is hepatitis in elderly women, with hyperglobulinemia, eosinophilia, autoantibodies and giant multinucleated hepatocytes. The case presented herein concerns a 73-year-old woman who, on two separate occasions after the ingestion of clometacin at recommended dosages, developed at the same time typical acute hepatitis and non-oliguric acute renal failure. The second episode came soon after the medication was inadvertently reintroduced. Both hepatic and renal involvements were fully reversible. A renal biopsy showed predominant lesions of acute interstitial nephritis and tubulonecrosis. Three possible mechanisms are discussed: 1) sensitivity of the kidney to drugs because of preceding angiosclerosis, 2) impaired regulation of renal blood flow because of clometacin provoked decrease of prostaglandin synthesis, and 3) as in the case of nephrotoxicity due to other medications, allergic mechanisms.