Risk of adverse outcomes following treatment with direct acting antiviral drugs in HCV infected patients with liver cirrhosis

Introduction: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the second major cause of death in Pakistan. Previously, interferon-based regimens were considered highly recommended therapy for HCV patients. Since 2015, interferon-based therapy has been replaced with interferon-free therapy also known as Direct Acting Antiviral (DAA) drugs. The treatment response of interferon-free regimens has been reported as highly effective treatment option with more than 90% sustained virological response (SVR) in chronic HCV infected patients in western countries of the world. 

Objective: This study aims to analyze the treatment response of DAA drugs in HCV-infected Pakistani population with liver cirrhosis. 

Methodology: We collected the total 94 sample of the HCV infected patients, from June 2020 to September 2020. Forty-six (46) patients were cirrhotic, and forty-eight (48) patients were non-cirrhotic. Data was analyzed using IBM SPSS version 21 software. 

Conclusion: The findings of our study suggest that the response rate was 82.60% in HCV cirrhotic patients and 68.75% in HCV non-cirrhotic patients. Our study showed that overall treatment response was independent of age and gender. We also observed some adverse effects such as hepatocellular carcinoma, portosystemic encephalopathy (PSE), spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP), hepatorenal syndrome (HRS), upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB), ascites, among patients following treatment with interferon-free regimens.