Hepatitis C cirrhosis: New perspectives for diagnosis and treatment

Abstract

Chronic hepatitis C infection is the leading cause of chronic liver disease, cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma as well as the primary indication for liver transplantation in the United States. Despite recent advances in drugs for the treatment of hepatitis C, predictive models estimate the incidence of cirrhosis due to hepatitis C infection will to continue to rise for the next two decades. There is currently an immense interest in the treatment of patients with fibrosis and early-stage cirrhosis as treatment can lead to decrease in the rates of decompensated cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma and need for liver transplantation in these patients. The goal of this paper is to provide clinicians and health care professionals further information about the treatment of patients with hepatitis C infection and cirrhosis. Additionally, the paper focuses on the disease burden, epidemiology, diagnosis and the disease course from infection to treatment. We provide an overview of multiple studies for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C infection that have included patients with cirrhosis. We also discuss the advantages and disadvantages of treatment in cirrhotic patients and focus on the most up to date guidelines available for treatment.