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Drug Interactions: Know the Ingredients, Consult Your Physician

Medical Author: Dennis Lee, M.D.
Medical Editor: Jay M. Marks, M.D.



A few days later, his wife took him to the emergency room because he couldn't stop vomiting, and his skin was turning yellow. Initial blood tests performed in the emergency room showed that he had high concentrations of liver enzymes and a high bilirubin, both signs of a liver problem. (High blood levels of bilirubin cause the skin and eyes to turn yellow, a condition called jaundice.) His internist and I suspected that he had either acute viral hepatitis (such as hepatitis A, or B) or drug-induced liver damage (such as from acetaminophen, commonly known by it's brand name, Tylenol, that is used in many cold and flu medications). Blood tests found no evidence of hepatitis viruses.

During the ensuing 24 hours John's jaundiced increased, and he became more lethargic. While neither the internist nor I had a clear explanation for his liver damage, both of us were impressed by the rapidity of his deterioration and realized that unless liver transplantation could be arranged quickly, he would die of liver failure.

Luckily, the medical director of a near-by liver transplantation unit transferred John to his unit as soon as we contacted him. In fact, John lapsed into a coma within minutes of arriving at the unit. (Coma in the setting of rapidly deteriorating liver damage usually progresses rapidly to death.) The transplantation team had to perform emergency liver transplantation using a non-immunologically matched liver. Ordinarily, liver transplant recipients have to wait weeks to months for a liver from a donor who immunologically, is similar to (matches) the recipient to avoid rejection of the organ. In John's case, the non-matched liver kept him alive just long enough until a matched liver became available, and a second transplant could be performed. Today, John is alive and well, and, by my calculation, his children should be graduating from high school soon.

Medically Reviewed by a Doctor on 12/9/2014