Treatment of Wilson's Disease

Excerpt

The goal of treatment of Wilson's disease is to increase copper excretion. In view of the ample evidence that the symptoms of Wilson's disease are due to damage caused by excess copper, this approach is an obvious and reasonable one. Because several agents that effectively establish a negative copper balance have been developed over the past three decades, a potential exists for considerable flexibility in the treatment of Wilson's disease. Other goals in successful therapy for these patients deserve attention, however, and these may be more important than the development of new copper chelating agents.

The effort to develop effective