Reading the scientific studies about rifampin its easy to become scared by the stories of people getting severe liver toxicity from this drug. I know its rare, but still scary! Just wondering if any of you here have experienced elevated liver enzymes or other liver toxicity with rifampin. Maybe if everyone says "no," I won't be as afraid. :-)
I'm still going to have my liver enzymes tested every week or two.
One of the scary things in one of the studies was that a gentlemen who had elevating liver enzymes and stopped the drugs..... it was TOO LATE, his enzymes kept going up for 2 months even after discontinuing drugs, and he ended up having a liver transplant!!
Posted by fflutterby (Member # 28081) on :
UP
Posted by dan67 (Member # 20344) on :
up
Posted by timaca (Member # 6911) on :
I've been on rifampin (and doxy)since the end of April. My liver enzymes were tested last week and everything is fine. My doctor has ordered tests to be run once a month for 3 months then every 3 months after that.
Best, Timaca
Posted by ardraneala (Member # 31416) on :
was there any other information about this man? what other risk factors did he have?
Posted by BoxerMom (Member # 25251) on :
I was on Rifampin for almost 18 months. No problems ever. I took 300mg 2x/day.
This was my best Bart drug, by far. I would take it again without hesitation.
Posted by dan67 (Member # 20344) on :
Boxer, did Rifampin cure your bartonella, or at least get it symptom free?
ardraneala, there are several studies on hepatotoxicity of rifampin, google the term "rifampin hepatotoxicity" and you'll get the story I referred to and a bunch of others. Granted, some of the people in the studies were also on other toxic drugs for various nasty infections, and the studies do say that Rifampin isn't as toxic as some of the other drugs. But still, we are talking about our livers here. One of the guys had a liver transplant. I think we should take things seriuosly and be aware of the danger and have frequent testing, not to mention going easy on our livers in the meantime, no alcohol, avoiding other medications, etc. Especially for long term use of Rifampin.