Successful treatment of hepatitis C reduces the need for liver transplants

30.08.2018 13:23

In Europe, hepatitis C virus infection is currently one of the most common indications for a liver transplant. However, hepatitis C can now be treated well and cured in almost all patients. Data from hepatological centers that participate in the German Hepatitis C Register of the German Liver Foundation have recently been published. These show that the new treatment options have significantly reduced the need for HCV-associated liver transplants.

Thanks to the antiviral drugs (DAAs - Direct Acting Antiviral Agents), which have been approved in Germany since 2014 and which intervene directly in the replication cycle of the virus, hepatitis C - if detected in good time - can be treated very well and in a short time, with almost no side effects. even be healed.

The clinical effect that hepatitis C therapy has also leads to a change in liver transplant numbers. An analysis of patient data from centers participating in the German Hepatitis C Register shows that in the first three years after the first DAAs were approved in 2014, the proportion of hepatitis C patients among all people who were listed for a liver transplant or .received a new liver has dropped by more than 50 percent. The evaluation also shows that antiviral HCV therapy for patients on the waiting list for a liver transplant is highly effective and safe. The healing rate increased from 32 percent (in 2010) to 100 percent (in 2016).

Prof. Dr. Kerstin Herzer from Essen University Hospital, first author of the publication, explains: “These data are of great importance because they show for the first time in Germany that antiviral hepatitis C therapy actually has a relevant influence on the need for liver transplantation for the corresponding patients. “

Data from eleven transplant centers throughout Germany on liver transplants from 2010 to 2016 were evaluated. Over 55 percent of all liver transplants carried out in Germany during this period were taken into account. The Leberstiftung-GmbH coordinated the analysis.