The spectrum of hepatotoxicity due to drugs.

Drugs in common use can cause toxic effects on the liver which can mimic almost every naturally occurring liver disease in man. Drugs can have direct (metabolite-related) toxic effects; they can also cause deposition of microvesicular fat in hepatocytes; or they can provoke reactions resembling acute alcoholic hepatitis (phospholipidosis) or acute viral hepatitis. Hepatotoxicity can also be part of a general hypersensitivity reaction, or hepatic fibrosis or cholestasis can predominate. Drugs can lead to almost any type of vascular disease in the liver and to benign and malignant tumours.