HBsAg clearance in patients with long-standing chronic active hepatitis B and hepatitis B virus-induced liver cirrhosis.

During a period of 3 years we observed 5 patients with chronic active hepatitis B and 2 with hepatitis B virus-induced liver cirrhosis who cleared HBsAg from their sera after 2-14 years of HBsAg carriership. 4 of them developed anti-HBs. After HBsAg clearance there was no evidence of persisting inflammatory activity within their livers. 5 of the 7 patients had been treated for 1-39 months with prednisolone, sometimes in combination with azathioprine. This therapy, however, had been stopped more than 3 years before these patients terminated their HBsAg carriership. Our observations indicate that even after long-standing chronic active hepatitis B or hepatitis B virus-induced liver cirrhosis HBsAg may be eliminated in a considerable number of patients.