Veno-occlusive disease of the liver associated with oral contraceptives: case report and review of literature.

This report concerns a young woman who, after taking a contraceptive preparation orally for three years, developed the Budd-Chiari syndrome as the result of a widespread chronic obliterative process involving the intrahepatic efferent venous system. Her prolonged course, which failed to respond to an end-to-side portacaval shunt procedure, mimicked chronic hepatitis evolving to cirrhosis. Additional noteworthy features were the presence of two small benign hepatic adenomas, observed both at biopsy and at necropsy, a lesion recently recognized as a complication of anovulatory drugs, and widespread hepatic calcifications found at autopsy.