Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Treatments and drugs
By Mayo Clinic staffNo specific treatment exists for most kinds of toxic hepatitis. Acute acetaminophen overdose is an exception — the chemical acetylcysteine is an effective antidote if given within 24 hours of the overdose. The sooner the medication is administered, the better the outcome. For most other cases of drug-induced toxic hepatitis, stopping the medication is the only treatment. Some people improve quickly once they're no longer exposed to the drug, especially if the problem is caught early. For others, recovery may take months.
Other treatments include:
- Supportive therapy. People with severe symptoms are likely to receive supportive therapy in the hospital, including intravenous fluids and medication to relieve nausea and vomiting.
- Liver transplant. When liver function is severely impaired, a liver transplant may be the only option for some people. Although liver transplantation is often successful, the number of people awaiting transplants far exceeds the number of donated organs.
- Dienstag JL. Toxic and drug-induced hepatitis. In: Fauci AS, et al. Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine. 17th ed. New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill; 2008. http://www.accessmedicine.com/resourceTOC.aspx?resourceID=4. Accessed Nov. 14, 2008.
- Lewis JH. Liver disease caused by anesthetics, toxins, and herbal preparations. In: Feldman M, et al. Sleisenger & Fordtran's Gastroinstestinal and Liver Disease: Pathophysiology, Diagnosis, Management. 8th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2006. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/111481204-2/0/1389/0.html. Accessed Nov. 11, 2008.
- Friedman LS. Liver, biliary tract, & pancreas disorders. In: McPhee SJ, et al. Current Medical Diagnosis and Treatment 2009. 48th ed. New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill; 2009. http://www.accessmedicine.com/resourceTOC.aspx?resourceID=1. Accessed Nov. 11, 2008.
- Brown JA. Haz-Map: Information on hazardous chemicals and occupational disease. National Institutes of Health. http://hazmap.nlm.nih.gov. Accessed Nov. 12, 2008.
- Fountain FF. Isoniazid hepatotoxicity associated with treatment of latent tuberculosis infection: A 7-year evaluation from a public health tuberculosis clinic. Chest. 2005;128:116.
- Fontana RJ. Acute liver failure including acetaminophen overdose. Medical Clinics of North America. 2008;92:761.
- Fontana RJ. Acute liver failure due to drugs. Seminars in Liver Disease. 2008;28:175.
- Watkins PB. Aminotransferase elevations in healthy adults receiving 4 grams of acetaminophen daily. Journal of the American Medical Association. 2006;296:87.
- NCI drug dictionary. National Cancer Institute. http://www.cancer.gov/drugdictionary. Accessed Nov. 14, 2008.
- Picco MF (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Fla. Oct. 28, 2008.
