Acute hepatitis due to brivudin: a case report.

Brivudin is licensed in several European countries for the treatment of herpetic infections, and is considered safe (approximately 1% of patients with transient elevation of liver enzymes) in large multicenter trials. We report a case of acute brivudin hepatitis documented with a liver biopsy in detail. Liver biopsy demonstrated acute liver injury with a predominant cytolytic pattern and features suggestive of a drug-induced immunoallergic hepatitis. Elevated ALT levels returned to normal within weeks. This is the first published case of acute immunoallergic hepatitis due to brivudin.