Copyright
©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Jun 8, 2015; 7(10): 1421-1426
Published online Jun 8, 2015. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v7.i10.1421
Published online Jun 8, 2015. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v7.i10.1421
Management of chronic hepatitis B before and after liver transplantation
James Fung, Department of Medicine, Queen Mary Hospital, the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
James Fung, Liver Transplant Center, Department of Surgery, Queen Mary Hospital, State Key Laboratory for Liver Research, the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Author contributions: Fung J solely contributed to this manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest: None.
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: James Fung, MD, Department of Medicine, Queen Mary Hospital, the University of Hong Kong, 102 Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China. jfung@gastro.hk
Telephone: +852-22-553830
Received: December 6, 2014
Peer-review started: December 6, 2014
First decision: January 20, 2015
Revised: January 29, 2015
Accepted: February 10, 2015
Article in press: February 12, 2015
Published online: June 8, 2015
Peer-review started: December 6, 2014
First decision: January 20, 2015
Revised: January 29, 2015
Accepted: February 10, 2015
Article in press: February 12, 2015
Published online: June 8, 2015
Core Tip
Core tip: In the era of highly potent nucleoside and nucleotide analogues for the treatment of hepatitis B, long term viral suppression can be achieved with minimal risk of drug resistance. The use of these agents without hepatitis B immune globulin has been shown to be highly effective in preventing hepatitis B-related graft hepatitis, with excellent long-term outcome. Complete eradication of hepatitis B from the host however is unlikely, and long-term therapy is therefore required. Future developments aiming at different target sites together with immune restoration of the host against hepatitis B may make this elusive goal possible.