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EASL releases updated hepatitis B guidelines at International Liver Congress
Liz Highleyman, 2017-04-26 07:40:00

The European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) presented revised clinical practice guidelines for the management of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection – the first update since 2012 – during a special session at its International Liver Congress last week in Amsterdam. For the first time the guidelines include tenofovir alafenamide and present evidence about when and how to stop antiviral therapy.

The new guidelines were published simultaneously in the online edition of the Journal of Hepatology and will appear in the 2 August 2017 print edition.

“Hepatitis B virus infections are major health threats that affect about 240 million individuals worldwide,” said guidelines panel member Frank Tacke of University Hospital Aachen in Germany. “The updated EASL guidelines integrate the latest scientific advances on diagnosis and therapy of hepatitis B, thereby providing clear guidance to clinicians and patients for the management of this potentially life-threatening disease.”

The guidelines address 12 main topics:

  1. Goals of therapy
  2. Endpoints of therapy
  3. Indications for treatment
  4. Monitoring of patients currently not treated
  5. Treatment strategies
  6. Definition of response
  7. Nucleoside/nucleotide monotherapy
  8. Pegylated interferon monotherapy
  9. Combination therapy
  10. Decompensated cirrhosis
  11. Prevention of HBV recurrence after liver transplant
  12. Treatment of special populations

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