[Renal toxicity of glafenine in man: renal stones and acute renal failure].

The role of glafenine in certain cases of acute renal failure was described several years ago, but very little work has been done on the intratubular precipitates generally responsible for these manifestations. We have been able to study 6 cases of acute poisoning and 5 cases of glafenine renal stones which have shown that several mechanisms are likely to be involved. In 4 cases, the acute poisoning resulted in reversible oliguria which resolved after several days. In 3 of the 5 cases of renal stones, variable amounts of glafenine were found in the zone of nucleation. Infrared spectrophotometric and chromatographic examination of the first urine after the return of diuresis in the oliguric subjects and in the patients with renal stones, revealed that several metabolites of glafenine could be implicated in the development of these renal precipitates. In the different cases, free metabolites and conjugated derivatives were found to be responsible. The authors discuss the relationship between the products detected and the clinical manifestations observed.