Abstract

MADRIGAL-BORLOZ, Marianella. Who to treat?. Acta méd. costarric [online]. 2008, vol.50, suppl.3, pp.41-44. ISSN 0001-6002.

Even though the optimum objective of hepatitis B treatment would be the eradication of the virus, therapies available nowadays only get this result on a minimum percentage of patients. Therefore, according to current knowledge, it is clear that the treatment that generates and keeps a long term suppression of HBV DNA at undetectable levels, reduces incidence of advanced liver disease and hepatocarcinoma, and this should be the objective when treating patients. When deciding which patients to treat, it should be considered their clinical, serological, and biochemical profiles, as well as the values of viral burden. Sometimes, the physician will finish the research with a hepatic biopsy. There are three groups of patients to be considered when deciding who to treat and all of them have different criteria that will guide the decision of the physician. The three groups include patients with: Chronic hepatitis HbeAg positive, chronic hepatitis HbeAg negative, and Advanced Liver disease.

Keywords : treatment; chronic hepatitis HbeAg negative; chronic hepatitis HbeAg positive.

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