[Noncirrhotic liver fibrosis after chronic arsenic poisoning]

Abstract

A 67-year-old woman with portal hypertension, splenomegaly without portal vein thrombosis, leucopenia and thrombocytopenia of splenic origin had repeated episodes of life-threatening haemorrhage from esophageal varices. Since childhood she had suffered from psoriasis and had been treated over a period of 15 years with Fowler's solution (in all about 25 g of arsenic trioxide). She had the characteristic skin lesions of arsenical poisoning-palmar hyperkeratoses and two basal cell carcinomas on the trunk. Histological examination of a wedge biopsy from the liver showed definite structural changes with fibrosis around the central veins and in the portal tracts. There was no evidence of cirrhotic alteration. The hepatocytes were normal by light microscopy and electron microscopy. This case of noncirrhotic hepatic fibrosis is considered to have been caused by chronic arsenical poisoning.