RESUMEN
Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of long-term lamivudine monotherapy in patients with decompensated cirrhosis due to HbeAg-negative1HBV-DNA positive. Design: Case - control study. Setting: Departments of Medicine and Surgery, Liaquat University Hospital, Jamshoro, and Isra University Hospital Hyderabad, from March 2000 to June 2003
Patients and Methods: We analyzed the clinical course and outcome of lamivudine treatment in 30 consecutive cirrhotics and compared with 30 HBV untreated HbeAg-negative controls
Results: Significant clinical improvement, defined as a reduction of at least two points in Child-Pugh score was observed in 23 of the 30 treated patients [76.6%] versus none of the 30 patients in the control group [p< 0.0001] after a mean follow-up of 10.6 + 2.1 [+SD] months. There were 10 deaths in the treated group versus 24 in the control group [p= 0.07]. Patients with clinical improvement had better survival than patients with no improvement [p=0.04]
Conclusion: Lamivudine monotherapy significantly improves liver function in HbeAg-negative decompensated cirrhosis