Acute renal failure during cephalothin therapy

Acute renal failure occurred in 5 patients during cephalothin sodium therapy. 2 of the patients had rashes and 2 had eosinophilia, but none had fever correlated with cephalothin therapy. The lack of other apparent causes and the temporal relation of the renal insufficiency with the initiation and later withdrawal of the drug suggest cephalothin as the cause. The pathogenesis is not certain. Renal tissue was available in only 1 case, and that tissue was 60 days remote from the cephalothin therapy. A chronic, nonspecific interstitial nephritis was present.