Liver Injury Induced by High-Dose Methylprednisolone Therapy: A Case Report and Brief Review of the Literature

Corticosteroids are used widely to treat many types of disease. In general, these drugs are considered safe for the liver; however, recent reports have demonstrated that high- dose methylprednisolone (MT) may cause severe liver injury. Here, we report a case of a 24-year-old female who was given pulsed MT therapy for multiple sclerosis. MT induced icteric hepatitis and impaired liver synthetic function. Hepatotoxicity devel- oped several weeks after drug exposure, and the causal association with MT was con- firmed by unintentional rechallenge test. A brief review of the literature on corticos- teroid-induced hepatotoxicity is presented.