The Many Faces of Medication-Related Injury in the Gastrointestinal Tract

Every year many new medications are approved for clinical use, several of which can cause clinically significant gastrointestinal tract toxicity. This article emphasizes the histologic features and differential diagnosis of drug-induced injury to the gastrointestinal mucosa. Ultimately, clinical correlation and cessation of a drug with resolution of symptoms are needed to definitively confirm a drug as a causative factor in mucosal injury. Recognizing histologic features in gastrointestinal biopsies, however, can allow surgical pathologists to play a key role in establishing a diagnosis of drug-induced gastrointestinal toxicity.