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Hindi Review Article
The Modern Treatment of Wilsons Disease
George J. Brewer*Sellner Emeritus Professor of Human Genetics, Emeritus Professor of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
- *Corresponding Author:
- George J. Brewer
MD, Sellner Emeritus, Professor of Human Genetics
Emeritus Professor of Internal Medicine
University of Michigan Medical School
Ann Arbor, MI, USA
Tel: 734-761-7970
E-mail: brewergj@umich.edu
Received date: May 13, 2015; Accepted date: July 23, 2015; Published date: July 30, 2015
Citation: Brewer GJ (2015) The Modern Treatment of Wilson’s Disease. J Gastrointest Dig Syst 5:312. doi:10.4172/2161-069X.1000312
Copyright: © 2015 Brewer GJ. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License; which permits unrestricted use; distribution; and reproduction in any medium; provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Wilson’s disease is an inherited defect in biliary copper excretion, causing a buildup of copper and copper toxicity, primarily in liver and brain. Presentation with liver disease and/or neurological disease usually occurs in the second and third decades of life. Recognition of the disease is often delayed, which is unfortunate, because once appropriate treatment is started, progression of the disease can be halted, and further damage avoided. Regarding current treatment, many physicians are only aware of penicillamine, because it was the first orally effective drug developed. However, penicillamine has outlived its usefulness, being more toxic than more recently developed drugs. For the hepatic presentation, a combination of trientine and zinc should be used for 4-6 months, then trientine stopped and zinc used for lifelong maintenance therapy. For the neurological presentation, tetrathiomolybdate should be used if available for 8-16 weeks, then zinc for maintenance. If tetrathiomolybdate is not available, zinc should be used. For presymptomatic patients, zinc should be used from the beginning. Zinc should also be used for pregnant and pediatric patients, with a reduced dose for the latter. Zinc causes gastric intolerance in some patients, so in all cases where zinc is the favored therapy, if it is not tolerated, then trientine should be used as second choice. In too many cases, patients are put on zinc, compliance not monitored, and then papers are written about “zinc failures”. There are no zinc failures, just noncompliance problems.
