Hepatotoxic Drugs – NCLEX Review (Nursing)

00:00 Now, bad for your liver. Hepatotoxicity.

00:03 There's our icon to tell you here's a great summary slide.

00:06 So antihypertensives, pain meds, anti-infectives, alcohol, tuberculosis meds, and psych meds.

00:14 These can all be particularly difficult on the liver. So what are you gonna look for? How are you gonna watch and assess your patient? How do you take the information about knowing that these medications are hard on your liver and know what to do as a nurse to keep your patient safe.

00:31 Well, you're gonna look for signs of unusual fatigue and weakness.

00:34 They're not gonna feel like eating.

00:36 Remember how involved your liver is in making that bile that helps you digest your food.

00:41 So they're gonna be really tired, they're not gonna be very hungry, they might have some pain in their right upper abdomen.

00:47 But remember, abdominal pain bounces everywhere.

00:49 Their urine's gonna be really dark-colored and you might see them starting to look like a little pumpkin, right? Like a little pumpkin.

00:57 They've got yellowing of their skin or eyes so they look very different externally when it's pretty severe.

01:03 So you know what we're looking for clinically.

01:06 Let's talk about if we've got some very specific quantitative numbers from lab work.

01:10 You got the option of elevated liver enzymes.

01:13 Now, we've got 2 of them there: ALT and AST. Which one is more specific for liver? Yeah, ALT. Yeah, I know. I just put the loser sign on my forehead but actually sometimes it's applicable.

01:26 But you're gonna be watching the ALT level.

01:29 Now, I have levels there for you but you know the drill.

01:32 If you got a different level memorize, go ahead and just jot it in really quick and stick with that.

01:37 Not trying to upset everything in your brain.

01:40 We're trying to help you find more order and help you be more effective on exams.

01:44 So keep in mind, when exam questions are being written, it may come from a long list of medications and they ask you which one you should question, they may give you lab work about an organ that's not functioning, and they're gonna see if you pick that up.

01:58 So you really do need to know your lab cold.

02:02 I mean you need to quiz yourself over and over again so that you know some set of normal values.

02:08 You also need to know what it looks like in a patient when that organ is not functioning, when it's not strong.