Author information
1
Gastrohepatology Unit, Piedmont, AOU Città della Salute e della Scienza di Torino, University of Torino, Italy.
2
Pathology Unit, Piedmont, AOU Città della Salute e della Scienza di Torino, University of Torino, Italy.
3
Liver Transplantation Center and General Surgery 2U, Piedmont, AOU Città della Salute e della Scienza di Torino, University of Torino, Italy.
4
Regional Transplantation Center, Piedmont, AOU Città della Salute e della Scienza di Torino, University of Torino, Italy.
Abstract
We read with interest the report from the American Society of Transplantation Consensus Conference on the use of hepatitis C (HCV) viremic donors in solid organ transplantation, which took place in Dallas in January 2017 (1). In the interferon-era, liver grafts from HCV-positive donors with no more than periportal fibrosis (F2 Ishak) did not show an outcome disadvantage compared with HCV-negative ones (2,3). In U.S., 16.9% of HCV-positive cirrhotics currently receive an organ from HCV-positive donors, 50% of whom are viremic and expected to transmit the infection (1). Considering the gap between organ demand and supply, the meeting participants felt that the availability of safe and effective direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) makes expansion of the criteria for transplanting HCV viremic organs into non-viremic recipients a possibility (1).