title: Living donor liver transplantation for end-stage hepatitis C.
abstract: Living donor liver transplantation is important for patients with end-stage viral hepatitis because of the shortage of organs from deceased donors. However, preliminary results indicate that living liver donation might be disadvantageous for hepatitis C virus-positive patients. Twenty-seven patients who underwent living donor liver transplantation for hepatitis C virus cirrhosis preemptively received antiviral therapy using interferon-alpha2b and ribavirin, which was started an average of 32 days after the operation and continued for at least 6 months thereafter. The serum hepatitis C virus RNA became negative in the 8 of 16 patients with more than 1 year follow-up. The cumulative 3-year patient survival was 85%, which was comparable to that of hepatitis C virus negative patients (n = 93; 90%). Preemptive antiviral therapy after transplantation may be necessary for satisfactory results after living donor liver transplantation.
authors.affiliation: Artificial Organ and Transplantation Division, Department of Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. yasusuga-tky@umin.ac.jp
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sugawara
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kaneko
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Akamatsu
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kishi
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hata
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kokudo
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Makuuchi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D016031:Liver Transplantation / Q000401:mortality / Q000502:physiology*; D019520:Living Donors; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016019:Survival Analysis; D016896:Treatment Outcome