Liver transplantation for hepatitis C virus-related cirrhosis

Since the introduction of techniques to reliably identify antibody to the hepatitis C virus and quantitation of hepatitis C virus, there has been an increasing interest in the behavior of chronic hepatitis C infection with liver transplantation. Ninety-seven patients with chronic active hepatitis C and fifty-nine patients with cryptogenic cirrhosis underwent 100 and 62 liver transplantation procedures, respectively, at a single institution. This represents 35% of the total liver transplantations performed during this time period. Twenty-three percent of transplants were performed in patients with evidence of chronic active hepatitis C. Patients and graft survival were excellent in both groups. One-, 2- and 3-yr patient survival rates for chronic active hepatitis C and cryptogenic cirrhosis were 94%, 89% and 87% and 84%, 84% and 73%, respectively. Hepatitis C can frequently be identified after transplantation. More than 95% of patients show persistence of antibody to the hepatitis C virus. Forty-one of 95 patients (surviving > 1 mo) showed recurrent hepatitis (initially seen 3 to 20 mo after transplantation), and 12 progressed to chronic active hepatitis. In 16 patients of the cryptogenic group in whom hepatitis developed, 11 were associated with de novo hepatitis C infection. Seven of these 11 cases went on to a chronic state. Of 11 deaths after transplant in the hepatitis C group, 2 were directly related to recurrent disease. There were 15 deaths in the cryptogenic group, 2 related to de novo hepatitis C. Patients were not serotyped. Interferon therapy was attempted in a small number of patients with disease, with inconclusive results.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)