Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jan 21, 2016; 22(3): 1260-1278
Published online Jan 21, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i3.1260
Pharmacokinetic drug interactions in liver disease: An update
Pietro Palatini, Sara De Martin
Pietro Palatini, Sara De Martin, Department of Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences, University of Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy
Author contributions: Palatini P and De Martin S analyzed the literature and wrote the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflict of interest to report.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Pietro Palatini, PhD, Department of Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences, University of Padova, Largo E. Meneghetti 2, 35131 Padova, Italy. pietro.palatini@unipd.it
Telephone: +39-49-8275077 Fax: +39-49-8275093
Received: May 29, 2015
Peer-review started: June 4, 2015
First decision: July 14, 2015
Revised: September 3, 2015
Accepted: November 19, 2015
Article in press: November 19, 2015
Published online: January 21, 2016
Processing time: 230 Days and 21.2 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: The widespread use of polypharmacotherapy makes drug-drug interactions due to inhibition or induction of drug-metabolizing enzymes virtually unavoidable, with consequently high risk of serious or even life-threatening adverse effects. An appropriate management of such interactions by dose adjustment is made difficult by their high interindividual variability. This review, which focuses on the variability associated with liver functional status, presents an updated discussion of the relevant literature, analyzes the mechanisms responsible for the effect of liver dysfunction on the magnitude of these interactions, and outlines the criteria on which their clinical management should be based.