NATURAL HISTORY, PREVENTION AND TREATMENT OF RECURRENT VIRAL HEPATITIS B &C

Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond VA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

A study to determine the effect of immunosupression, rejection, and denervation on lidocaine and indocyanine green metabolism after liver transplant. Liver transplant has become a widely applied therapeutic measure for patients with end-stage liver disease. Significant progress has been made in refining the surgical technique, improving donor organ preservation, enhancing the immediate post-operative care, and in the early recognition and treatment of grafted tissue rejection. Such improvements in operative and post-operative care have resulted in a dramatic increase in survival of liver transplant recipients. Many centers are reporting one-year survival rates of over 80%, compared to 50%, ten years ago. As survival improved and larger numbers of patients were followed for longer periods of time, it became clear that much needed to be learned about both the transplanted liver and the liver transplant patient in the long-term setting. Some of the concerns of the investigators are: graft function in general, incidence, diagnosis, and cause of acute rejection outside the immediate post operative period, incidence, diagnosis, and natural history of chronic rejection, the appropriate level of immunosupression in the long-term setting and the incidence of immunosupression associated complications, the incidence of recurrence of the primary liver disease, the development of graft dysfunction not directly attributed to immunosupression, the effect of transplantation on the nutritional status of the transplant patient, and the effect of transplantation on the quality of life of the transplant patient. Patients undergoing liver transplantation are potential candidates for this study.