Liver Transplant for Hepatitis B

Topic Overview

During a liver transplant, a surgeon removes your damaged liver. That liver is replaced with a healthy one from an organ donor.

Liver transplants are done to treat long-term (chronic) hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection only after all other treatments have not worked. That's because transplanted organs can become reinfected with HBV.

• Infections that come back are often severe. This can lead to rapid failure of the transplanted liver.
• High doses of hepatitis B immunoglobulin (HBIG) are given to try to prevent reinfection.
• Short-term pre- and post-transplant therapy with a nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI) may help prevent reinfection of a transplanted liver. NRTIs include entecavir, lamivudine, and tenofovir. ^{footnote 1} Interferon and peginterferon are not used to prevent reinfection. ^{footnote 1}

Liver transplants are most often done at large medical centers. Transplants are very expensive.