Commentary: Heart transplantation using hepatitis C –positive donors: What are we waiting for?

Since the THINKER (Transplanting Hepatitis C Kidneys into Negative KidnEy Recipients) trial established that solid-organ transplantation from hepatitis C nucleic acid amplification test (NAT)+ kidney donors into hepatitis C –negative patients was possible without infecting recipients, an entirely new pool of organ donors became available.1 This era was ushered in by the advent of direct-acting antiviral agents that cure the vast majority of patients infected with hepatitis C. Over the last 5 decades, hepatitis C inf ection rates have dramatically fallen in the population but are now rising again due to the opioid epidemic.

Source: The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery - September 18, 2020 Category: Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgery Authors: Michael Ibrahim, Arman Kilic Tags: Commentary Source Type: research