Progressive Cholestatic Liver Disease Associated with Clarithromycin Treatment

The authors report a case of an acute toxic cholestatic reaction to clarithromycin, proven by liver biopsy, in a patient with comorbid diseases, prior exposure to erythromycin and ultimate death. No autopsy was performed. A 59-year-old woman with diabetes mellitus and chronic renal insufficiency received clarithromycin 500 mg twice daily for 3 days for acute maxillary sinusitis and then developed a rash and jaundice. She was hospitalized 11 days after stopping clarithromycin. Progressive cholestatic jaundice accompanied by oligo-anuric renal failure requiring hemodialysis ensued. Liver biopsy showed pure bilirubinostasis without parenchymal inflammation. On the 22nd hospital day, after clinical deterioration, she died from an apparent cardiopulmonary death. This is the first report in the literature of a fatality associated with a short-term, low (1 g) daily dose of drug-induced pure cholestasis, an entity not previously identified with severe drug-induced hepatotoxicity.