Halogenated analgesics and hepatotoxicity

The otherwise safe and useful anaesthetic halothane has been suspected of producing the occasional complication of hepatic necrosis, ascribed either to a drug allergy or to biotransformation to reactive intermediates. Several characteristics, such as middle age, obesity and multiple administrations of the anaesthetic, seem to put the patient at higher risk. The diagnosis of anaesthetic-induced jaundice is still one of exclusion, however, and this rare problem is felt to be overdiagnosed.