Hepatitis C Virus Infection and Kidney Transplantation A Review for Clinicians

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is frequent among kidneytransplant recipients, and it is currently the major cause of chronicliver disease following kidney transplantation. The presence of HCVinfection has been found to negatively affect the morbidity andmortality rates in patients on dialysis, as well; it seems that kidneytransplantation is a reasonable treatment option after a carefulpretransplant evaluation. Nevertheless, there are several questionsabout the indications of kidney transplantation, pretransplantevaluation, transplantation from HCV-infected donors, patient andgraft survival rates, and kidney diseases associated with hepatitisC virus after kidney transplantation. This review deals with themost current information on pretransplant and posttransplantevaluations, complications, treatment, and prognosis of HCVinfectedkidney transplant recipients.