Rezulin: Alternative Treatments & Damage Treatment Options

Switching Medication

With Rezulin no longer a viable option for general diabetes control, physicians must switch their patients to alternative diabetes medications immediately. Because Rezulin remains in the patient's system for a few days after it is no longer taken, its medicinal effects also continue. This means that physicians may instruct their patients to stop taking Rezulin for those few days before starting a new diabetes medication. Patients must also continue to monitor their blood sugars at home to ensure that they remain in a good range during this transition and as new medication is begun.

Patients must not stop taking Rezulin until instructed by their physician.

There are two drugs on the market now which appear to offer the benefits of Rezulin, without as high a level of risk for liver toxicity. These are Avandia (generically known as rosiglitazone) and Actos (or pioglitazone).

Depending on a patient's testing results, the physician may also prescribe other oral medications in other classes of diabetes drugs to see if the diabetes can be controlled with these medications.

Liver Transplant Procedures

If tests prove that a patient's liver damage is too severe, the patient may undergo a liver transplant. A liver transplant is replacement of a diseased liver due to chronic liver failure, acute liver failure or tumors within the liver. The diseased liver is replaced with a segment of liver from a healthy human donor (usually a relative or close friend).

After all of the medical issues have been settled and the donor-recipient match-up is completed, a date is selected for the operation. As the damaged liver is removed from the recipient by one medical team, approximately half of the donor's normal liver is removed by the other team. Once the donor operation is completed, both surgical teams completed the transplant by attaching the half-liver to the recipient. The donor operation usually takes about five hours and the recipient operation about 10 hours. Both half-livers (of donor and recipient) grow to be full-sized in six to eight weeks.

The donor is usually in the intensive care unit for about 24 hour and in the hospital for 5-7 days. Most patients are up and out of bed (with assistance) by the second or third postoperative day. It is usually necessary to stay off work and usual home activities for a month full time and two to four weeks part time, depending on the rapidity of the recovery.

There is chance of rejection of the organ, but several drugs reduce the ability of the transplant recipient to produce the antibodies (which could attach the new organ and reject it) by suppressing the immune system of the recipient. These drugs are called immunosuppressive drugs.

Liver transplants usually require immunosuppressive treatment for several years. The dosage is reduced slowly when a physician is satisfied that rejection is unlikely. If a vital organ such as the liver is rejected, the patient usually dies unless another transplant can be performed.