- Here's some potentially good news for people with hepatitis C who
are waiting for liver transplants: Hepatitis C-infected livers seem to
do as well as healthy livers in these patients, a new study indicates.
The
findings suggest that using hepatitis C-infected (HCV-positive) livers
could help reduce wait times for people with hepatitis C who need a
transplant, the researchers said. Hepatitis C is a virus that can infect
the liver, leading to inflammation, scarring and liver cancer.
More
than 15,000 people in the United States are on the liver transplant
waiting list, and about 16 percent will die before they receive a new
liver, according to background notes with the study.
In the
United States, use of HCV-positive livers for liver transplants in
people with hepatitis C has tripled, from less than 3 percent in 1995 to
more than 9 percent in 2013.
Researchers analyzed data from
nearly almost 44,000 people with hepatitis C who received a liver
transplant in the United States during that time. Almost 6 percent
received an HCV-positive liver. There was no difference in time to death
between those who received either a liver with hepatitis or a healthy
liver, the study found.
The study was to be presented Thursday at the International Liver Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
"Over
the past two decades, mainly due to shortages in organs, the use of
HCV-positive organs for liver transplantation has tripled," said study
author Dr. Zobair Younossi, chair of the department of medicine at Inova
Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Va.
"Our study clearly shows
that people with HCV who received HCV-positive livers had the same
medium- to long-term outcomes as people that received healthy livers. As
highly effective treatments for HCV are available for transplanted
patients, the future of these patients is bright," Younossi added in a
Congress news release.
This study demonstrates a greater
opportunity for use of HCV-positive livers due to their comparable
outcomes with healthy livers, Tom Hemming Karlsen, vice secretary of the
European Association for the Study of the Liver, said in the news
release.
"With the number of people waiting for a liver
transplant expected to rise, the study results should give hope over the
coming years for those on the waiting list," he said.
Data and
conclusions presented at meetings are usually considered preliminary
until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.
Source--health.usnews
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