Systematic Reviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Apr 27, 2025; 17(4): 105120
Published online Apr 27, 2025. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v17.i4.105120
Bile cast nephropathy: A systematic review of case reports and case series
Iyiad Alabdul Razzak, Hind El Naamani, Dimo Dimitrov, Rebecca Morin, Bertrand L Jaber
Iyiad Alabdul Razzak, Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, United States
Hind El Naamani, Dimo Dimitrov, Bertrand L Jaber, Department of Medicine, St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center, Boston, MA 02135, United States
Rebecca Morin, Department of Research and Instruction, Tufts University, Boston, MA 02111, United States
Author contributions: Alabdul Razzak I and Jaber BL designed the study and search protocol; Morin R conducted the literature search; Alabdul Razzak I, El Naamani H, and Dimitrov D performed reference screening and data extraction; Jaber BL performed the statistical analysis; Alabdul Razzak I, El Naamani H, and Dimitrov D drafted the manuscript; Jaber BL critically revised and edited the manuscript for important intellectual content; and all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Iyiad Alabdul Razzak, MD, Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, 330 Brookline Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, United States. ialabdul@bidmc.harvard.edu
Received: January 13, 2025
Revised: February 27, 2025
Accepted: March 25, 2025
Published online: April 27, 2025
Processing time: 103 Days and 17.8 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: This systematic review highlights bile cast nephropathy (BCN) as a serious yet underrecognized cause of acute kidney injury in patients with liver disease. Despite its clinical significance, universally accepted diagnostic criteria and therapeutic approaches are currently lacking. Among the various liver disease etiologies implicated in BCN, alcohol-related liver disease appears to be associated with more severe acute kidney injury. Additionally, higher initial serum creatinine was identified as a predictor of dialysis requirement or death. These findings underscore the need for further research into non-invasive diagnostic tools and viable therapeutic strategies for BCN.