Viral Hepatitis: Manifestations and Management Strategy

Viral hepatitis is the third most common cause of liver disease in allogeneic transplant recipients and causes significant morbidity and mortality. When treating patients with hematological malignancies, an emphasis should be placed on identification of patients at risk for viral hepatitis with appropriate screening. Initial screening serology should include anti-HCV, HBsAg, anti-HBs, and anti-HBc testing. When hepatitis B exposure has been documented, prophylaxis of viral reactivation for all HBsAg-positive patients with a nucleoside analogue should be implemented. HCV infection appears to have little short-term impact on survival after bone marrow transplantation, but is a risk factor for veno-occlusive disease (VOD) and graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). In the long-term survivor, HCV infection can lead to significant morbidity and mortality due to the development of cirrhosis, decompensation, and liver cancer. Since effective antiviral therapies are available for both hepatitis B and C, routine screening and selected intervention is recommended once reactivation and disease recurrence is documented. In this chapter we will highlight the mechanisms of virus reactivation, clinical manifestations, and management strategies to minimize acute and chronic morbidity in this population.