Liver injury is commonly observed in patients that are prescribed anti-epileptic (AED) medications. These drugs may lead to acute liver failure. Sometimes patients may asymptomatic.
A hypersensitivity to any of these AED medications may lead to Hepatotoxicity:
Phenytoin~ Can occur in less than 1% of patients and may result in liver death.
Carbamazepine~ Patients with reactions are immediately taken off the drug with
no further reactions.
Valproate~ There is two types: Valproate therapy-dose-related and idiosyncratic, which is usually irreversible causing serve Hepatotoxicity.
Valporic Acid~ Hepatotoxicity is rare in the acute overdose setting.
Patients who need a greater dosage of their AED medication will have their baseline liver enzymes checked and will be monitored while they are taking their AEDs.
http://www.theannals.com/cgi/content/abstract/23/1/13
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/417938
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3939742
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1432377
It is sad that a patient already dealing with epilepsy and taking medication for that could be causing harm to their liver and not even knowing it if the symptoms are asymptomatic.
ReplyDeleteYes I heard that too. This is very interesting to me because a friend of mine has epilepsy and was talking about her medications. She said that her meds may be causing liver damage, but if she is asymptomatic, then she would have no idea. It is very scary to think that you are trying to treat epilepsy, only to maybe cause other health problems.
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