Role of Ribavirin in the Era of Direct-Acting Antiviral Therapies of Chronic Hepatitis C.

BACKGROUND

The efficacy of adding ribavirin (RBV) to direct antivirals (DAAs) in HCV treatment is still debatable, with allegations of insecure profiles.

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate safety and efficacy of RBV in the era of DAAs in chronic HCV Egyptian patients.

METHODS

In this cohort retrospective study, data of 847 HCV patients treated with different regimens of DAAs with or without RBV were recruited between June 2017 and September 2018. Cases were categorized into five groups: non-cirrhotic (318), compensated (196), decompensated liver cirrhosis (53), post liver transplantation (30), and 250 treatment experienced patients. All patients' demographics and laboratory characteristics were evaluated at baseline, week of treatment. Ribavirin was prescribed or banned outside international guideline recommendations of HCV treatment in cases assembled from the private sector.: No statistically significant difference between RBV and non-RBV treated patients was documented regarding SVR (97.2%, 97.8%) respectively in the whole cohort (p 0.509). On grouping, adding RBV was only significant in the treatment experienced patients (96.8%, 85% in RBV and non-RBV regimens respectively) (p 0.001). Adding RBV to DAA regimens was generally associated with modest adverse events particularly anemia (8.5%), and hepatic decompensation (jaundice and ascites) (0.3%). Bilirubin, INR, and platelet counts all were found to be the most independent predictors of SVR achievement by multivariate analysis (p ≤ 0.05).: RBV may still have an augmenting role in treatment experienced patients; permitting effectual shortening of therapy particularly in patients with cirrhosis, with modest side and adverse consequences.