[Drug-induced hepatic involvement, something to consider!].

A retrospective study over the last 5 years on drug-induced liver injury was performed in the Internal Medicine Department of the University Hospital of Geneva. According to WHO and Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences (CIOMS) criteria for drug-induced liver adverse events, 142 cases were identified, with 255 drugs fulfilling causality criteria of certain, probable or possible. 63 patients (44%) suffered severe consequences of liver injury, including 9 deaths. Drugs reported belonged to the therapeutic classes of antibiotics (43%), cardiovascular (20%), analgesics (10%), gastrointestinal (9%), psychotropic (7%), and others (11%). Despite bias inherent to the retrospective methodology, only 10% of the side effects were spontaneously reported to the pharmaco-vigilance board. This is in accordance with the known reporting rate. It can be concluded that spontaneous reports are to be regarded only as signals.