Retrospective Cohort Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Apr 7, 2015; 21(13): 3912-3920
Published online Apr 7, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i13.3912
Hepatitis C virus recurrence after liver transplantation: A 10-year evaluation
Stefano Gitto, Luca Saverio Belli, Ranka Vukotic, Stefania Lorenzini, Aldo Airoldi, Arrigo Francesco Giuseppe Cicero, Marcello Vangeli, Lucia Brodosi, Arianna Martello Panno, Roberto Di Donato, Matteo Cescon, Gian Luca Grazi, Luciano De Carlis, Antonio Daniele Pinna, Mauro Bernardi, Pietro Andreone
Stefano Gitto, Ranka Vukotic, Stefania Lorenzini, Arrigo Francesco Giuseppe Cicero, Lucia Brodosi, Arianna Martello Panno, Roberto Di Donato, Matteo Cescon, Gian Luca Grazi, Antonio Daniele Pinna, Mauro Bernardi, Pietro Andreone, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Bologna and Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna, Policlinico Sant’Orsola Malpighi, 40138 Bologna, Italy
Stefano Gitto, Department of Gastroenterology, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria and University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, 41124 Modena, Italy
Luca Saverio Belli, Aldo Airoldi, Marcello Vangeli, Department of Hepatology and Gastroenterology, Niguarda Hospital, 20162 Milan, Italy
Gian Luca Grazi, Hepatobiliopancreatic and General Surgery Unit, Regina Elena Institute, 00186 Rome, Italy
Luciano De Carlis, Department of General Surgery and Transplantation, Niguarda Hospital, 20162 Milan, Italy
Author contributions: Gitto S conceived of and designed the study, performed the database creation, data collection and critical analyses, drafted the manuscript and revised it for scientific content; Belli LS contributed to the study design, data collection and interpretation and to the critical revision of the manuscript; Vukotic R contributed to the interpretation of the data, to manuscript drafting and critical revision for scientific content; Lorenzini S contributed to the study design and data collection; Airoldi A contributed to data collection; Cicero AFG performed the statistical analyses; Vangeli M contributed to data collection; Brodosi L contributed to the data collection; Panno AM contributed to data collection; Di Donato R contributed to data collection; Cescon M, Grazi GL, De Carlis L and Pinna AD contributed to the study design and to data collection; Bernardi M revised the draft for scientific content; and Andreone P conceived of and designed the study, contributed to the interpretation of the data and to the revision of the draft for scientific content, and is the guarantor of this review article; all authors approved the final version of the manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Pietro Andreone, MD, Professor, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Bologna and Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna, Policlinico Sant’Orsola Malpighi, Via Massarenti 9, 40138 Bologna, Italy. pietro.andreone@unibo.it
Telephone: +39-51-2143618 Fax: +39-51-345806
Received: August 7, 2014
Peer-review started: August 8, 2014
First decision: August 27, 2014
Revised: October 10, 2014
Accepted: November 18, 2014
Article in press: November 19, 2014
Published online: April 7, 2015
Core Tip

Core tip: The recurrence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection after liver transplantation is still a great clinical challenge. Currently, the treatment opportunities are growing with the development of new antivirals; however, in several countries, their availability will not be immediate. The decision to start treatment for HCV recurrence might be difficult in some cases, and the data on the long-term impact are extremely useful in this setting. This study reports the results of 10-year survival analysis on an Italian cohort of liver transplant cases focusing on the differences in outcomes, not only between the treated and not-treated subjects but also in specific subgroups of patients with mild recurrence and those considered too sick to be treated.