Did Adult Liver Transplant Recipients Who Had Hepatitis C Prior to Transplant Receive Antiviral Therapy, January 1997 to June 2009

• Activity Number: 522
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 1, 2012 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Biopharmaceutical Section
• Author(s): Feifei Wei*+ and Robin R. Whitebird
• Companies: University of Arkansas for Medical Science and HealthPartners Research Foundation
• Keywords: liver transplant ; hepatitis C ; antiviral therapy ; liver cancer

Abstract

This study is to estimate incidence and timing of antiviral therapy among adult liver transplant recipients who had hepatitis C prior to transplant.

We conducted a retrospective cohort study using the 10% sample of LifeLink Health Plan Claims Data, resulting in 3,871,040 adults and 10,644,162.5 person years.

Total 149 adult liver transplant recipients from January 1997 to June 2009 with no prior liver transplantation were included. Sixty-five (44%) and 36 (24%) recipients had hepatitis C and liver cancer prior to transplant, respectively. Twenty-seven (18%) recipients had both hepatitis C and liver cancer before transplantation. Among those prescription information were available, total 15 (33%) recipients received antiviral therapy, and 5 (33%) of them received it before transplantation.

Recurrence of hepatitis C is the leading cause of mortality, graft loss and re-transplantation. While antiviral therapy initiated before transplantation or preemptively soon after transplantation may successfully treat or suppress hepatitis C and reduce the risk of recurrence, yet only one-third of patients in this study received them.