Almost half of acetaminophen liver failures were accidental
Acetaminophen caused 275 of 662 acute liver failures at 22 US centres, and 48% of those were accidents. Of the accidental group, 38% had taken two or more products containing it.
What the study found
The accidental half got there through products with other names
Acetaminophen caused 275 of 662 acute liver failure cases at 22 US centres, 48% of them accidents rather than attempts. Within that group 38% had been taking two or more acetaminophen products at once, and 63% a narcotic combination. A US label search returns 4,776 products carrying it.
The caveat · Only cases that reached liver units
Tertiary referral centres see the worst cases, so 42% is acetaminophen's share of the liver failures that reach those units and never a risk to anyone taking it. Doses in the accidental group were reconstructed from what patients recalled afterwards. The three routes overlap, so one person can sit in all of them and the percentages do not add to a hundred. The narcotic-combination finding is US-specific, since those products are not sold everywhere.