Ursodeoxycholic acid can improve liver transaminase quantities in children with anticonvulsant drugs hepatotoxicity: A pilot study

The present study has been directed to investigate ursodeoxycholic acid (udca) effect inchildren,to reduce the high liver transaminases induced by anticonvulsant drugs (drug induced hepatitis).this idea has been driven from cytoprotective and antioxidant properties of udca to be used in druginduced inflammation in liver. twenty two epileptic patients aged between 4mo – 3yr whom were underanticonvulsant therapy with drugs such as valperoic acid,primidone,levetiracetam,phenobarbital or anycombination of them and had shown liver transaminases rise,after rule out of viral-autoimmune,metabolicand anatomic causes,have been prescribed udca in dose of 10-15 mg/kg/day,at least for 6 months. anypatient who have shown confusing factors such as genetic disorders with liver involvement or spontaneousdecline in enzymes or had not treatment compliance has been excluded from the study. transaminases rangechanges as well as probable side effects of the drug have been monitored. the results indicated that udca iseffective and well tolerable in the children with drug induced hyper transaminasemia. no side effect has beenseen and recorded in this study. based on this study and its results,we recommend udca as a safe andeffective choice in drug induced hepatotoxicities. © 2015 tehran university of medical sciences. all rights reserved.