Fatal reaction to phenylbutazone in a patient with Reiter's disease.

Phenylbutazone was introduced into therapeutics in 1949: it rapidly became popular, and latterly, in Great Britain alone, general practitioners have been writing between 3 and 4 million prescriptions for it each year; quantities used in hospitals are unknown. Toxic effects include agranulocytosis, reactivation of peptic ulcers, rashes, vomiting, diarrhoea, and jaundice. The Dunlop Committee on the Safety of Drugs has records of thirteen suspected cases of liver damage, including two deaths, associated with the drug and about seventy deaths from bone marrow depression have been reported. This paper gives details of a fatal case of acute hepatocellular failure occurring in a patient receiving phenylbutazone for the treatment of Reiter's disease.