title: Living donor liver transplantation from a donor previously treated with interferon for hepatitis C virus: a case report.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Selecting a marginal donor in liver transplantation (LT) remains controversial but is necessary because of the small number of available donors.
  
  
  METHODS
  A 46-year-old Japanese woman was a candidate to donate her liver to her brother, who had decompensated liver cirrhosis of unknown origin. Eight years before the donation, she had a mild liver dysfunction that was diagnosed as a hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection (serotype 2). She had received anti-viral therapy with interferon α-2b three times weekly for 24 weeks and had a sustained viral response (SVR). A biopsy of her liver before the donation showed normal findings without any active hepatitis, and her serum was negative for HCV-RNA. Only 67 patients have undergone LT from a cadaveric donor in Japan. The family in this case decided to have living donor LT. A careful selection for the liver graft donation was made; however, since she was the only candidate, we approved her as a living donor. She was discharged nine days after the liver donation. Her liver function recovered immediately. A computed tomography scan showed sufficient liver regeneration one year later. Her brother also had good liver function after LT and had no HCV infection 48 months after surgery and no de novo malignancy. Neither of the siblings has developed an HCV infection.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A patient with SVR status after interferon therapy might be considered a candidate for living donor LT but only if there are no other possibilities of LT for the recipient. A careful follow-up of the donor after donation is needed. The recipient also must have a very close follow-up because it is difficult to predict what might happen to the graft with post-transplant immunosuppression.
authors: Department of Surgery, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, 1-7-1 Sakamoto, Nagasaki 852-8501, Japan. sueguchi@nagasaki-u.ac.jp.
authors: Masaaki
authors: M
authors: Hidaka
authors: Mitsuhisa
authors: M
authors: Takatsuki
authors: Akihiko
authors: A
authors: Soyama
authors: Hisamitsu
authors: H
authors: Miyaaki
authors: Tatsuki
authors: T
authors: Ichikawa
authors: Kazuhiko
authors: K
authors: Nakao
authors: Takashi
authors: T
authors: Kanematsu
authors: Susumu
authors: S
authors: Eguchi