Tylenol (acetaminophen) is toxic to the liver in large doses (such as in suicidal attempts where a patient ingests large amounts, often more than 10 grams of the medication), and also in situations where a patient drinks alcohol heavily while taking high doses of Tylenol. Tylenol with alcohol ingestion can be toxic to the liver with lower doses of Tylenol than without the alcohol.
Otherwise, for the general population, both Tylenol and Motrin (ibuprofen, an NSAIDS) have low(<1%) liver toxicity at the regular, recommended doses. Moreover, both drugs can usually be used, in the recommended doses prescribed by a physician, reasonably safely for the "flu" symptoms caused by interferon used for treating chronic hepatitis C.
With advanced, complicated cirrhosis from hepatitis C, for which interferon is rarely used, all drugs, including these, must be prescribed with great caution, if at all. In addition, in these patients with advanced cirrhosis, NSAIDS, including Motrin, can worsen or even precipitate hepatorenal syndrome (a serious condition with both liver and kidney failure) and possibly induce intestinal bleeding.
Thank you for your question.
Medical Author Dr. Dennis Lee
Last Editorial Review: 11/14/2006
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Q: What is the importance of not having red Jell-O the night before a colonoscopy? |
Answer:
Undigested red Jell-O may not be completely evacuated from the colon and can look like blood.
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Last Editorial Review: 2/14/2007
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Q: What is a contracted gallbladder? |
Answer:
The gallbladder is a muscular, hollow sack, approximately two inches by one inch that attaches to the lower edge of the liver. The purpose of the gallbladder is to store and concentrate bile. After a meal the muscular gallbladder contracts, and the stored bile is secreted into the intestine where it helps digest food, particularly fats.
The term "contracted gallbladder" can refer to two different situations. The first occurs following a meal or after maneuvers that cause the muscle of the gallbladder to contract, for example, ingestion of fat or injection intravenously of the hormone that is responsible for causing the gallbladder to contract. In either case, the gallbladder empties, becomes smaller, and is said to be contracted. This is the normal situation. The second situation is when the gallbladder is diseased, specifically when there has been inflammation, for example, due to gallstones, that has resulted in scarring of the gallbladder. Scarring causes the gallbladder to become smaller, for example, contracted, and the gallbladder no longer functions normally. The “contraction�?in the latter situation is clearly different from the "contraction" in the first.
The gallbladder is most frequently evaluated by ultrasonography since fluid-filled sacks like the gallbladder are easily identified by ultrasound waves. If the gallbladder is contracted, no fluid-filled sack, or only a very small one, is seen where the gallbladder should be. This implies that the gallbladder is contracted (rarely is the gallbladder missing from birth); however, as per the previous discussion, it may be contracted because it is diseased (scarred) or because the person having the ultrasonogram has just eaten. That is why ultrasonograms of the gallbladder usually are done fasting, for example, so that an absence of the gallbladder (indicating a contracted gallbladder) means a diseased gallbladder and not a contracted one that is due to eating.
Thank you for your question.
Medical Author Dr. Jay W. Marks
Medical Editor Dr. Dennis Lee
Last Editorial Review: 2/14/2007
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