United Kingdom: HIV Liver Transplant Outcomes Studied

Following liver transplantation, HIV-positive recipients have survival rates similar to HIV-negative recipients, according to a British research team.

Kosh Agarwal at the Institute of Liver Studies at Kings College Hospital in London and colleagues conducted the study, which was presented last week in Copenhagen at a meeting of the European Association for the Study of the Liver.

The report found no difference in survival rates at one and five years between the liver transplant patients with and without HIV. "These study results are valuable confirmation that selected HIV-positive patients are as suitable candidates for liver transplant as HIV-negative patients and should have similar access to treatment," Agarwal said.

"However, those patients with coinfection with hepatitis C did less well, emphasizing the need for appropriate antiviral therapy early in the course of [hepatitis C virus] related liver disease," Agarwal continued. The study showed that one- and five-year survival rates were 87 percent and 69 percent in HIV-negative patients with hepatitis C but 73 percent and 53 percent in HIV-positive patients coinfected with hepatitis C.

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