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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

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Drug-Induced Liver Toxicity

Drugs sometimes cause serious injuries to the livers of patients, with loss of hepatic function leading to illness, disability, hospitalization, and even life threatening liver failure and death or need for liver transplantation. As our aging world population uses more and more drugs, as well as self-prescribed over-the-counter medications, so-called “dietary supplements,” special diets, alcohol, and is exposed also to environmental chemicals, chances of such injury are rising. In the United States, drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is now the leading cause of acute liver failure (ALF), exceeding all other causes combined [see below: recent graphic data from WM Lee and colleagues from the Acute Liver Failure Study Group, updated to include data through December 2010]:  

 


 

graph - etiology of liver failure in the US, 2011


This website is intended to present up-to-date presentations and discussions on issues pertinent to DILI, as well as some background information from previous conferences. The site is sponsored by the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), together with the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases disclaimer icon (AASLD), the Drug-Induced Liver Injury Network disclaimer icon (DILIN) of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), and Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).

If you wish to use any of the material posted at this website, please request permission from any of the authors to do so, and please cite the source of the material giving credit to them.

Please send critique, comment, and suggestions for improvement of this website to John R. Senior, M.D. (john.senior@fda.hhs.gov) or Lana Pauls, M.P.H. (lana.pauls@fda.hhs.gov).
  

2012 Meeting

The 2012 meeting will be held on Wednesday and Thursday, March 14-15, at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Maryland. For further information and registration, see the Critical Path Institute disclaimer icon website.


Previous Meetings

 
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