Transplantation Opportunities of Hepatitis C Virus-Seropositive Patients on the Kidney Waiting List.

OBJECTIVE: Besides severe organ shortage, hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is an important obstacle for kidney transplantation because of long waiting times on deceased kidney donor waiting lists. We aimed to evaluate calling number of candidates according to HCV serology.

METHOD: A total of 404 adults on the deceased donor waiting list invited for cadaveric transplantation was evaluated. Demographic data, waiting time, calling number for transplantation, and viral serology were obtained during the 6-year period.

RESULTS: Mean waiting duration and calling number of all patients were 42.7 ± 34 months and 1.56 ± 4.37 times, respectively. Twenty-six candidates had chronic HCV infection and 12 of 26 were HCV RNA-positive. Mean waiting duration and calling number in anti-HCV-positive candidates were significantly higher compared with anti-HCV-negative candidates (85.3 ± 38.8 vs 39.8 ± 31.6 months, and 10.8 ± 10.3 vs 0.92 ± 2.6 times, respectively; P < .001). Mean waiting duration and total calling number in HCV-RNA-positive candidates were significantly higher than in HCV-RNA-negative ones (107.5 ± 7.5 vs 66.2 ± 44.8 months; P = .018; 15 ± 9.7 vs 7.3 ± 9.8 times, respectively; P = .026).

CONCLUSIONS: Chronic HCV infection is an important issue leading to longer waiting time on the list. Our observation showed that waiting durations of anti-HCV-positive candidates were longer than that of negative patients, although they had more frequent opportunity for transplantation.