Zithromax (azithromycin) is a common antibiotic with a reputation for safely treating bacterial infections. However, some patients may have experienced serious Zithromax side effects, including a potentially life-threatening complication called hepatotoxicity. A 2002 liver study originally published in the journal Seminars on Liver Disease highlights the risk of hepatotoxicity to Zmax users.

Hepatotoxicity is a type of liver damage caused by chemicals negatively affecting the function of the liver. In a healthy body, the liver has many important roles; chief among these roles, the liver alters many toxic chemicals by modifying them, thus rendering them easier to process by the body. This process is complex and everyone’s liver functions slightly differently. Genetics and previous exposures mean that many individuals may react in unusual ways to common medications, and some patients may experience hepatotoxicity when taking certain medications. The specific type of hepatotoxicity can vary with the exact chemicals involved, but it can lead to liver damage of varying degrees and in some instances can cause liver failure.

Azithromycin, the active ingredient in Zithromax, is cited as an antibiotic drug that can potentially cause hepatotoxicity. The exact symptoms of hepatotoxicity vary wildly, but hepatotoxicity can mimic every liver disease known to medical science. Thus, when a patient presents with symptoms of liver disease or liver failure, it is critical that doctors consider what medications the patients are taking, and consult the prescribing physicians. Zithromax is among the list of drugs that physicians must consider as a potential cause for hepatotoxicity.

Zithromax Liver Study and Dangers of Hepatotoxicity

In the previously mentioned Zithromax liver study, the article described a case report from 2002 in which a woman suffered from hepatotoxicity after taking Zithromax. In this case, the patient suffered from Zithromax liver side effects caused by the hepatotoxicity several weeks into the course of azithromycin.

In this Zithromax liver case, the patient sought medical care after suffering from jaundice, an aversion to food, vomiting, severe pain in the upper abdomen, and other serious symptoms of hepatotoxicity and liver damage. Her physicians initially diagnosed her as having hepatitis (a general term inflammation of the liver, not necessarily a viral infection), and a condition called cholestasis.

Cholestasis describes a group of symptoms seen when the liver’s ability to produce bile is damaged. It can be caused physical damage to the liver, or by cellular damage to certain tissues in the liver. In this case, physicians believed that the patient had a negative liver reaction to Zithromax. According to the Zithromax liver study, it took three weeks for the patient to recover from allegedly azithromycin-induced hepatotoxicity.

As a drug that can cause hepatotoxicity, Zithromax liver damage may be of special concern to azithromycin users and prescribing physicians. Additionally, reported cases of Zithromax hepatotoxicity may present weeks after the initial exposure, since hepatotoxicity may depend on the liver’s own gradual action to fully manifest.

As a result of the liver damage and liver failure allegedly sustained by Zithromax users who later contracted heptatoxicity, many consumers may choose to file a Zithromax lawsuit against the drug’s manufacturer, Pfizer Inc.