Toxic hepatitis from oral methoxsalen photochemotherapy (PUVA)

A 59-year-old white woman with long-standing psoriasis, who had a damaged liver from methotrexate, developed a toxic hepatitis while on oral methoxsalen photochemotherapy (PUVA). Fever and marked elevation of liver enzymes occurred after the fifteenth PUVA treatment and spontaneously returned to normal within 5 days. One week later, following the next PUVA treatment, the same toxic hepatitis developed and again spontaneously resolved. Topical methoxsalen photochemotherapy with ultraviolet A (UVA) did not produce the toxic hepatitis and provided a suppression of the psoriasis on a maintenance basis.