Volume 6, Issue 8

Avoiding "MELD Purgatory"

In this issue:

Should all patients with cirrhosis be treated immediately for hepatitis C infection? What are the circumstances when it’s better for patients to wait to cure their HCV? What tools can clinicians use to help make that decision?

In this issue, Drs. Jordan Feld and Lisette Krassenburg from the Toronto Centre for Liver Disease at the University of Toronto apply the information in their recent newsletter issue to clinical practice.

Learning objectives:

  • Describe the challenges of the timing of treatment for HCV patients with decompensated cirrhosis who are on the wait list for liver transplantation.
  • Summarize which patients with cured HCV should remain under surveillance for hepatocellular carcinoma

Authors:

Jordan Feld, MD, MPH
Jordan Feld, MD, MPH

Professor of Medicine
Interim Director, Toronto Centre for Liver Disease
University Health Network
University of Toronto
Toronto, Canada

Lisette Krassenburg, MD, MSc
Lisette Krassenburg, MD, MSc

PhD Candidate 
University of Toronto, Toronto Centre for Liver Disease 
Toronto, Canada 

PhD Candidate
Erasmus University Rotterdam
Rotterdam, Netherlands

Program Directors:

Mark S. Sulkowski, MD

Professor of Medicine
Division of Infectious Diseases
Medical Director, Viral Hepatitis Center
Divisions of Infectious Diseases and Gastroenterology and Hepatology
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Baltimore, Maryland

Raymond T. Chung, MD

Director of Hepatology and Liver Center
Vice Chief, Gastroenterology
Kevin and Polly Maroni Research Scholar
Massachusetts General Hospital
Harvard Medical School
Boston, Massachusetts

Taryn Haselhuhn, BA, BSN, MSN, CRNP

The Johns Hopkins Hospital
​Baltimore, Maryland

Length of activity:

0.5 hour Physicians
0.5 contact hour Nurses

Launch date: April 26, 2019
Expiration date: April 25, 2021