Viral Hepatitis in Renal Transplant Patients

Abstract

Hepatitis is emerging as a common serious problem in renal transplant patients. To determine the prevalence of viral hepatic in our transplant population, we screened the patients who received renal transplants in the period from 1979-1997, inclusive, for hepatitis B virus (HBV) and for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Of those patients screened for HBV infection, seven o f101 recipients (6.9%) were found positive for HbsAg. During the follow up, one patient cleared HbsAg and one from the negative group acquired it. Of the recipients screened for HCV antibodies 32 of 78 patients (41%) had positive tests. Higher incidence of chronic liver disease (37.5%) was found in the HCV positive group, compared to zero in the negative group. However, no difference in the short-term graft loss (25%), was noted between these two groups. We conclude that prevalence of hepatitis C in our transplant patients is high and may have an impact on their long-term outcome.

Keywords

• Hepatitis
• Renal Transplant
• HBV
• HCV.