Hepatitis After Exposure to Halothane

SUMMARY Clinical records and histologic specimens of liver from 42 patients with hepatitis after exposures to halothane showed clinical and pathologic features helpful in differ-entiating hepatitis from other causes of jaundice in the postoperative period. Fever and jaundice were temporally related to operation. Peripheral eosinophilia was common, and splenomegaly was unusual. Light-microscopic examination snowed the hallmarks of viral hepatitis. Although steatosis, granuloma formation, and eosinophils in the in-flammatory exudate were noted frequently, these additional findings were not diagnostic. Sera of six patients examined contained antimitochondrial an-tibodies, and electron microscopic studies in two cases showed mitochondrial abnormalities no