Oxidative metabolism of halothane in the production of altered hepatocyte membrane antigens in acute halothane-induced hepatic necrosis.

Previous investigations have shown that patients with fulminant hepatic failure after halothane anaesthesia have a circulating antibody which reacts with an antigen present on the surface of halothane-altered hepatocytes. In the present study, it has been shown that the expression of the antigen is associated with the oxidative metabolism of halothane, in contrast with results of other groups which have shown that the reductive route is involved in the direct hepatotoxic reaction attributed to halothane.