Controversies Regarding the Hepatitis B Immune Globulin Prophylaxis (HBIG) for Liver Transplantation Recipients

Abstract

Despite the impressive progress that has been made in developing highly effective prophylaxis regimen against HBV recurrence after liver transplantation which reduces the risk of recurrence to 30% in patients with chronic hepatitis B and to less than 10% in patients with fulminant liver failure, however, the effectiveness of such prophylactic options in preventing recurrence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) depends upon the dosage, route of administration, duration of treatment, type of anti-virals and the viremic status at the time of transplantation. This review will discuss the current status of the topic and consider the developments that made for liver pre- and post-transplantation. The ultimate efficacy of hepatitis B immunoglobulin (HBIg) for the prophylaxis against HBV recurrence after LT in relation to variable factors has been discussed in this review. Moreover, different regimen options based on using either concomitant nucleos (t) ide analogues (NA) and HBIg or drug monotherapy etc discussed.