Survival after orthotopic liver transplantation: the impact of antibody against hepatitis B core antigen in the donor.

Liver transplantation using grafts from donors with antibody against hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc) increases the recipients' risk of developing hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection post-transplantation. Our aim was to assess whether using such grafts was associated with reduced posttransplantation survival and whether this association depended on recipients' prior exposure to HBV on the basis of their pretransplantation serological patterns. Data were derived from the United Network for Organ Sharing on adult, cadaveric, first-time liver transplants performed between 1994 and 2006. Among recipients who did not have HBV infection before transplantation, those with anti-HBc-positive donors had significantly worse unadjusted posttransplantation patient survival than recipients with anti-HBc-negative donors [hazard ratio, 1.35; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.21-1.50]. However, after adjustments for other predictors of posttransplantation survival, including donor age, donor race, and recipient underlying liver diseases, patient survival was not significantly different between the 2 groups (hazard ratio, 1.09; 95% CI, 0.97-1.24). Among recipients without antibody against hepatitis B surface antigen (anti-HBs), use of anti-HBc-positive donor grafts was associated with a trend toward worse survival (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.18; 95% CI, 0.95-1.46), whereas no such trend was observed among recipients positive for anti-HBs. In conclusion, in patients without HBV infection before transplantation, using anti-HBc-positive donors was not independently associated with worse posttransplantation survival. Matching these donors to recipients with anti-HBs pre-transplantation may be especially safe.