Renewed 2015 Clinical Practice Guidelines for Management of Hepatitis C by Korean Association for the Study of the Liver; What Has Been Changed? – Treatment of Patients with Decompensated Cirrhosis

• Main Author: Geum-Youn Gwak
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Jin Publishing & Printing Co. 2016-03-01
• Series: The Korean Journal of Gastroenterology
• Subjects: Hepatitis C virus; Decompensated liver cirrhosis; Direct-acting antiviral agents
• Online Access: http://www.kjg.or.kr/journal/view.html?doi=10.4166/kjg.2016.67.3.137

HCV-related decompensated liver cirrhosis is a life-threatening illness with an average 5-year survival rate of 50%. Because these patients have higher risk of morbidity and mortality including development of hepatocellular carcinoma, the benefits of eradicating the virus may be greater than in those with less-advanced disease. Recently, direct-acting antiviral agents (DAAs) are replacing interferon-based regimens that have serious adverse events and low tolerability in the treatment of HCV infection. Many clinical trials using combination of several DAAs with or without ribavirin are now actively on-going in HCV-related decompensated cirrhosis, and encouraging data are beginning to appear. In this review, recent advances in the treatment of HCV-related decompensated cirrhosis are introduced with special focus on new DAAs. (Korean J Gastroenterol 2016;67:137-141)