Prolonged cholestasis and ductopenia associated with tenoxicam

Cholestatic liver diseases leading to progressive destruction of intra-hepatic bile ducts and ductopenia encompass multiple etiologies. Pathophysiology and natural history of drug-induced cholangiopathies remain unclear. We report a case of prolonged ductopenia attributed to Tenoxicam (Tilcotil°-a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug of the oxicam family) ingested at therapeutic dose. A 36 year-old male patient was admitted for jaundice and Lyell syndrome starting 1 week after the ingestion of Tenoxicam. Liver biopsy showed cholestasis, non-suppurative cholangitis and polymorphous inflammatory infiltrate of the portal tracts (round cells, macrophages an eosinophils). Treatment with ursodesoxycholic acid and cholestyramine was instituted and the patient was asymptomatic 1 year after. Three years later mild biological cholestasis persisted and ductopenia was evidenced on liver biopsy. In this report we found that: (1) The toxicity of tenoxicam was probably mediated by an immunoallergic mechanism (Lyell syndrome and eosinophils on histology); (2) ductopenia was secondary to inflammatory cholangitis. Factors responsible for this chronic evolution are still unknown (genetic predisposition, vascular factors, etc.); and (3) the presence of ductopenia contrasted with the ‘clinical recovery’ of the disease suggesting accessory bile drainage by cholangioles or partial reconstruction of the biliary tree.