Hyper vitaminosis D: are we overprescribing vitamin D?

Abstract

Vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin is now considered to be a hormone due to its important role in many physiological functions. Vitamin D deficiency has been associated with many disorders ranging from bone diseases, cardiovascular diseases to cancer. Hence, there is a recent surge in the empirical prescription of vitamin D for various disorders without documentation of vitamin D deficiency and monitoring the treatment. We report a case of iatrogenic hypercalcemia and acute kidney injury due to vitamin D toxicity after empirical and overzealous use of vitamin D and calcium supplements. We present this case to remind clinicians the importance of monitoring the patients treated with mega doses of vitamin D.

Keywords

• Acute kidney injury
• cholecalciferol
• hyper vitaminosis D
• iatrogenic hypercalcemia