Study: Hepatitis C Recurs Faster in Living Donor Liver Transplant Recipients

"This is a significant consideration," said Dr. Masahiko Taniguchi. "Fifty five percent of the (living donor liver transplant) patients at our center are (hepatitis C) patients… We think, therefore, that (those transplants) may be unwise in hepatitis C patients."

Between April 1999 and April 2001, 40 patients -- 24 of whom had hepatitis C -- underwent living donor liver transplants at the Universitoyof Colorado. During the same time period, 41 hepatitis C patients received cadaver liver transplants.

Researchers reported at the American transplant scientific meeting that for those receiving living donor liver transplants, hepatitis C infection recurred within an average of 90 days, compared to 168 days for those receiving cadaver transplants.

The researchers partly attributed the rapid recurrence of hepatitis C in living donor liver transplant recipients to the smaller graft, saying that receiving a portion of a liver -- rather than an entire cadaver liver -- resulted in poorer organ function as well in these patients..

Further, the researchers suggested that the "graft fibrosis induced by (hepatitis C) recurrence is accelerated by graft regeneration, and inflammation caused by poorer graft function in early stage after transplantation."