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Unexpected outcome (positive or negative) including adverse drug reactions
CASE REPORT
Homeopathy-medicine induced severe alcoholic hepatitis
  1. Cyriac Abby Philips1,
  2. Philip Augustine2,
  3. Rajaguru Paramaguru3 and
  4. Rizwan Ahamed2
  1. 1 The Liver Unit, Ernakulam Medical Centre, Kochi, Kerala, India
  2. 2 Gastroenterology, Ernakulam Medical Centre, Kochi, Kerala, India
  3. 3 Pathology, PVS Memorial Hospital Ltd, Kochi, Kerala, India
  1. Correspondence to Dr Cyriac Abby Philips, abbyphilips{at}gmail.com

Abstract

We present a teetotaler with compensated non-alcoholic fatty-liver-disease related cirrhosis who presented with acute worsening of his chronic liver disease. The acute event was not discernible even after extensive work up and finally a transjugular liver biopsy revealed features suggestive of severe alcoholic hepatitis. The patient and the family denied occult alcohol use when questioned over multiple times and finally, the culprit ‘alcohol’ was found to be the homoeopathy medicines that the patient was consuming over a month for treatment of Gilbert’s syndrome. We retrieved and tested the homoeopathy drug for alcohol content and found an alarming 18% ethanol in the same, confirming our diagnosis.

  • complementary medicine
  • alcoholic liver disease
  • pathology
  • unwanted effects/adverse reactions
  • toxicology

https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2019-229627

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors CAP wrote and the manuscript and designed the study; PA and RA collected pertinent data and revised the manuscript; RP provided pertinent images for the manuscript and provided revisions; all authors finalised the revised version.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Patient consent for publication Obtained.