Halothane is a volatile anesthetic, which was first introduced to clinical practice in 1956. In Iran, halothane is being used as the main anesthetic in more than 80% of hospitals. Unfortunately, increasing numbers of HH are being reported in Iran.
A research article to be published on September 14, 2008 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this question. The research team led by Dr. Eghtesadi-Araghi Payam from Shariati Hospital of Iran studied HH in Iran and its associated risk factors.
The results of this study revealed that despite guidelines have been developed to reduce the probability of a patient developing HH, they are largely ignored in Iran. Also, the results showed that a large percentage of these cases could have been avoided.
To reduce further cases of HH from occurring in countries still utilizing halothane in adults' anesthesia, the authors suggested that the use of halothane should be absolutely avoided in female patients with a history of surgery (or delivery) with general anesthesia. The authors think that strict adherence to this set of criteria will reduce, but not totally prevent occurring of HH following in these countries.
This series of 59 cases of HH collected in 12 years in a country with health security conditions lower than those found in the US or Western Europe is of high medical interest for the Iranian population and populations of other countries in the Middle East and, most likely, also in Africa and Asia. Therefore, the topic of the present paper is quite pertinent and extremely interesting for a lot of physicians around the world.
Reference: Eghtesadi-Araghi P, Sohrabpour A, Vahedi H, Saberi-Firoozi M. Halothane Hepatitis in Iran: A review of 59 cases. World J Gastroenterol 2008; 14(34): 5322-5326
http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/14/5322.asp
Correspondence to: Dr. Payam Eghtesadi-Araghi, Digestive Disease Research Center, Shariati Hospital, North Karegar Avenue, Medical Sciences/University of Tehran, Tehran 14117, Iran. payam_eghtesadi@yahoo.com
Telephone: +98-21-44454814 Fax: +98-21-44454814
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World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG), a leading international journal in gastroenterology and hepatology, has established a reputation for publishing first class research on esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer, viral hepatitis, colorectal cancer, and H pylori infection. It provides a forum for both clinicians and scientists. WJG has been indexed and abstracted in Current Contents/Clinical Medicine, Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch) and Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, Index Medicus, MEDLINE and PubMed, Chemical Abstracts, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Abstracts Journals, Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology and Hepatology, CAB Abstracts and Global Health. ISI JCR 2003-2000 IF: 3.318, 2.532, 1.445 and 0.993. WJG is a weekly journal published by WJG Press. The publication dates are the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th of every month. The WJG is supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 30224801 and No. 30424812, and was founded with the title China National Journal of New Gastroenterology on October 1, 1995, and renamed WJG on January 25, 1998.
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