Review Article
Expanding the Kidney Donor Pool through Use of Hepatitis C-Infected Donors: is it Time to Dive in?
1Transplant Alliance, WVU Medicine, USA
2Pharmacy and Therapeutics, WVU Medicine, USA
3Department of Surgery, WVU Medicine, USA
4Department of Medicine, Section of Nephrology, WVU Medicine, USA
Received Date:September 09, 2019; Published Date: September 13, 2019
Abstract
The survival benefit of kidney transplantation for patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) is well established. However, the demand for kidney donor organs greatly exceeds the current supply. The use of hepatitis C infected donors could increase the number of kidneys available for transplantation. The use of highly effective second-generation direct acting antivirals (DAAs) has been recently studied for the prevention of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in kidney transplant recipients who are HCV negative and receive HCV infected kidney allografts.
