Acute amiodarone-induced hepatitis.

Two fatal cases of amiodarone-induced acute, confluent, necrotic hepatitis are described. The patients, aged 28 and 60, had received a high loading dose of amiodarone. After the first and second day respectively following the administration of amiodarone, the patients developed jaundice, hepatomegaly, high serum transaminases, a prolonged prothrombin time and low cholesterol concentration. They died of hepatic coma and acute renal failure on the fourteenth and fourth day respectively. Needle liver biopsy, performed immediately after death, revealed lesions of acute drug-induced hepatitis with confluent and bridging necrosis. It is proposed that rapid administration of a high loading dose of amiodarone can cause acute confluent necrotic hepatitis. The mode of administration and the dosage of the drug should be re-considered.