OutcomePrevious Intravenous Substance Use and Outcome of Liver Transplantation in Patients With Chronic Hepatitis C Infection
Section snippets
Materials and Methods
This retrospective cohort study included all HCV-positive patients who underwent liver transplantation between December 1998 and January 2002 in three transplant units in Belgium. Patients with and without a history of IVDU were compared. Follow-up was to the beginning of 2006.
Included in the study were patients who underwent a first liver transplantation because of end-stage liver disease due to CHC viral infection. Patients were considered intravenous substance users when infected after IVDU.
Demographic and Pretransplantation Characteristics of the Study Population
Overall, 67 patients underwent a first liver transplantation during the study. Seven patients (10%) had a documented history of substance abuse before transplantation (group 1), and 60 patients had no evidence of substance abuse (group 2). Patients with a history of substance abuse were all infected after needle and paraphernalia sharing during intravenous drug use. In the non-IVDU group, some were infected by transfusion (10%) or tattoo (2%). However, in most of those patients (88%), the
Discussion
In recent years, substance use has become the major risk factor for infection with HCV. More patients with a history of substance use are being treated at liver transplant centers. Although for patients in a methadone maintenance program a 6-month abstinence period is required,6 no comparative data about the long-term outcome of liver transplantation in substance users in prolonged complete remission are available.
To our knowledge, this is the first comparative study of posttransplantation
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