Controversies in the management of hepatitis C virus infection after liver transplantation
- 30 November 2003
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health) in Liver Transplantation
- Vol. 9 (11), 1129-1144
- https://doi.org/10.1053/jlts.2003.50261
Abstract
Recurrence of hepatitis C virus infection after liver transplantation is universal. A significant percentage of these patients develop progressive graft injury and cirrhosis. Those factors that modulate disease progression in liver transplant recipients with recurrent hepatitis C virus infection remain controversial and are poorly understood. Treatment of recurrent hepatitis C virus after liver transplantation with either interferon or interferon and ribavirin has yielded only limited success. Regardless of this, treatment is instituted. Peginterferon is more effective than standard interferon for treatment of chronic hepatitis C virus infection in the nontransplantation setting when used either alone or with ribavirin. The effectiveness of peginterferon, both with and without ribavirin in the posttransplantation setting, is currently being explored. In this review those factors thought to affect disease progression in patients with recurrent hepatitis C virus will be discussed, strategies that have been used to treat recurrent hepatitis C virus will be reviewed, and the impact that peginterferon may have on hepatitis C virus infection in the pretransplantation and posttransplantation setting will be explored.Keywords
This publication has 99 references indexed in Scilit:
- Outcome of liver transplantation for patients infected by hepatitis C, including those infected by genotype 4Liver Transplantation, 2003
- Treatment of recurrent hepatitis CLiver Transplantation, 2002
- Impact of immunosuppressive therapy on recurrence of hepatitis CLiver Transplantation, 2002
- Hepatitis C: Magnitude of the problemLiver Transplantation, 2002
- Professor Dame Sheila Sherlock (1918–2001)Journal of Hepatology, 2002
- Treatment of Acute Hepatitis C with Interferon Alfa-2bNew England Journal of Medicine, 2001
- Recurrent and new hepatitis C virus infection after liver transplantationHepatology, 1999
- Histological grading and staging of chronic hepatitisJournal of Hepatology, 1995
- Severe or multiple rejection episodes are associated with early recurrence of hepatitis C after orthotopic liver transplantationHepatology, 1995
- Suicide associated with alfa-interferon therapy for chronic viral hepatitisJournal of Hepatology, 1994