title: Advancing patient care: integrating new data.
abstract: Physicians involved in the management of patients with chronic hepatitis B infection are frequently faced with complex clinical issues concerning the diagnosis, investigation, and treatment of patients. Guidelines exist within the literature that help with decision making; however, in practice individual nuances are often encountered necessitating decisions that go beyond the current guidelines. Following presentation of the available data, a panel of expert hepatologists and gastroenterologists sought to identify and solve challenges that are faced by clinicians in the daily management of patients with chronic hepatitis B infection. The following summary provides an overview of the outcome of these discussions. Because of the complexities of clinical management, the recommendations reflect the opinion of the majority; however, many recommendations were not unanimous. Furthermore, the recommendations that follow are limited to adult patients; the treatment of children was not discussed. A number of issues were identified, and statements concerning possible management strategies that could be applied were developed.
authors.affiliation: University of California-San Francisco, and VA Medical Center 111B, San Francisco, CA 94121, USA.
authors.forename: Teresa L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.forename: Canan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Avunduk
authors.forename: Jules L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Dienstag
authors.forename: James W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Freston
authors.forename: Ira M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Jacobson
authors.forename: H Juergen
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Nord
authors.forename: Morris
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sherman
mesh_terms: D019694:Hepatitis B, Chronic / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D010346:Patient Care Management / Q000639:trends*; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D014481:United States