DELTA IN FECTION AND LIVER DISEASE RECURRENCE IN HEPATIC ALLOGRAFTS.

LIVER transplantation constitutes today the elective therapeutic approach of choice for patients affected by end-stage hepatic failure secondary to diseases of a heterogeneous nature. With liver cirrhosis, the principal explanation for inferior results is the technical diffìculty and the almost universal recurring of the originai chronic active hepatitis in B-virus carriers.1 The most important factor in reinfection by hepatitis-B virus (HBV) in grafted livers seems to be a high virai replication. Markers of high HBV replication are the specifìc DNA polymerase, HBe, HBV DNA in the serum, and the presence of HBV core in the liver.2 Over the last years, we have dealt with a large number of chronic hepatitis patients who often lack markers of active HBV synthesis, but are superinfected by hepatitis delta virus (HDV).3