Levamisole treatment in acute hepatitis

Fifty-six and forty patients with acute icteric hepatitis were given levamisole and placebo, respectively, for the first 3 days of a week of the disease for 2 weeks, and continued through the third and fourth weeks if their hepatitis was not resolved. Liver functions of the levamisole-treated patients became normal slightly faster than the controls'. The normalization time of transaminases was found barely significantly shorter in the levamisole-treated group than in the controls (p less than 0.05). Additional studies with larger groups of antigenetically different types of hepatitis are warranted to determine whether treatment with levamisole might lessen the chances of developing chronic hepatitis.