Seminars in liver disease
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Liver transplantation has rapidly advanced from an experimental therapy to a mainstream treatment option for a wide range of acute and chronic liver diseases. Indications for liver transplant have evolved to include previously contraindicated conditions such as hepatocellular carcinoma and alcohol-related liver disease. Cirrhosis from chronic hepatitis C infection remains the most common indication today. ⋯ Those with acute liver failure are prioritized ahead of those with chronic conditions. Although not used as a direct criterion for allocation, development of the concept of transplant survival benefit, i.e., the extra years of life attributable to transplant, has facilitated better ordering of those candidates likely to have the most benefit, while restricting access to those whose lives will be extended minimally or not at all. Overall posttransplant outcomes have steadily improved, with unadjusted 5-year patient survival rates of 77% among patients transplanted with MELD score between 15 and 20, and 72% for those with MELD scores between 21 and 30.
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Seminars in liver disease · Nov 2010
ReviewManagement of chronic hepatitis B: status and challenges beyond treatment guidelines.
Several national and international guidelines have been published in the last years focusing on the problem of how to best treat patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Therapy with interferon or nucleos(t)ide analogues has been shown to be most effective in suppressing HBV deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) levels and preventing fibrosis progression herby also reducing the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). ⋯ The present review discusses several major issues in this respect such as strategies to identify the optimal time point for treatment indication and end of therapy. It also concentrates on questions and queries that have to do with the interpretation of viral parameters like HBsAg quantification, HBV genotypes, and HBeAg, or the characterization of risk patients prone to develop fatal sequel of the HBV infection.