Letters To The Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Jul 18, 2017; 9(20): 905-906
Published online Jul 18, 2017. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v9.i20.905
Changing landscape of hepatitis C virus-positive donors
Catherine E Kling, Ajit P Limaye, Lena Sibulesky
Catherine E Kling, Lena Sibulesky, Division of Transplant Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, United States
Ajit P Limaye, Division of Allergy and Infectious Disease, Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, United States
Author contributions: Kling CE wrote the paper and conducted research; Limaye AP designed research and reviewed the manuscript; Sibulesky L designed research and reviewed the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest. No funding was received for this research.
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: Lena Sibulesky, MD, Assistant Professor, Division of Transplant Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Washington, 1959 NE Pacific Street, Box 356410, Seattle, WA 98195, United States. lenasi@uw.edu
Telephone: +1-206-5987797 Fax: +1-206-5984287
Received: April 12, 2017
Peer-review started: April 14, 2017
First decision: May 9, 2017
Revised: May 11, 2017
Accepted: May 30, 2017
Article in press: May 31, 2017
Published online: July 18, 2017
Processing time: 95 Days and 23.9 Hours
Abstract

With the introduction of the new highly effective antiviral therapies, there has been a dramatic increase in the use of the hepatitis C virus (HCV)-positive livers in HCV-positive recipients. In the majority of studies, HCV positivity was defined as a donor testing HCV Ab positive. In 2015, all Organ Procurement Organizations were mandated to perform and report HCV Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing (NAT) results on all deceased and living donors. Studies are not yet available on how organs are being utilized based on NAT status and whether NAT status affects recipient outcomes. Further studies are needed to maximize the use of these organs.

Keywords: Heptitis C organ utilization; Hepatitis C virus aviremic; Liver transplantation; Hepatitis C positive recipients

Core tip: For many years hepatitis C virus (HCV) positive livers have been used with caution in carefully selected mostly HCV-positive patients. With the introduction of the new highly effective antiviral therapies discard rate of HCV-positive livers, although improved, continues to be high. On August 10, 2015, the United Network for Organ Sharing mandated all Organ Procurement Organizations to perform and report HCV Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing (NAT) results on all deceased and living donors. We believe further research in the outcome of viremic and aviremic HCV livers is needed so that the utilization of these organs can be maximized in HCV NAT + and potentially HCV NAT - recipients.