Interferon antiviral therapy is available for some patients with cirrhotic decompensation of hepatitis C

  Recently, we met several patients with hepatitis C cirrhosis in decompensated stage or even some patients with hepatitis C cirrhosis in compensated stage, who have been transferred to many hospitals over the past few years, including many famous hospitals, and all of them said that they could not be treated with interferon antiviral therapy, but only gave liver protection and anti-fibrotic treatment, and the patients’ disease still progressed slowly, and some of them had serious disease progression. Most of these patients could have been treated with antiviral therapy in the early stage, but for various reasons, they lost the opportunity to receive interferon antiviral therapy, which is deeply regrettable; the previous liver protection and anti-fibrosis treatment cannot stop the progress of the disease, but only slow down the progress of the disease, because liver protection and anti-fibrosis treatment are only the symptoms, but only antiviral treatment is the root cause. In fact, the 2009 Expert Consensus on Antiviral Therapy for Chronic Hepatitis C specifically addresses the issue of indications for antiviral therapy in patients with cirrhosis C. For those with Child-Pugh score A, treatment is strongly recommended, for patients with B, and for patients with C, treatment is not recommended. However, patients’ liver function compensation is in the process of dynamic change, and patients with poor scores can be improved to a certain extent after treatment, and some patients who do not meet the scoring criteria can actively improve their liver function to meet the requirements of antiviral treatment scores, and can still be treated with antiviral therapy; for patients whose white blood cells and platelets cannot meet the criteria of antiviral therapy, they can For patients whose blood picture cannot reach the standard of antiviral treatment, they can be treated with small doses of ordinary interferon under close observation, and after adaptation, the dose can be increased until the full dose or even replaced by pegylated interferon treatment; if after the above treatment, they still cannot reach the full treatment standard, they can undergo splenectomy or partial splenic artery embolization to improve the blood picture if it is determined to be caused by hypersplenism, and then proceed to antiviral treatment, most patients can get a better regression.  Therefore, as long as the patient’s condition permits, we should create conditions for patients with hepatitis C cirrhosis as much as possible and give them an opportunity for antiviral treatment in order to bring about a more desirable clinical outcome; of course, with the continuous development of medical technology, some new drugs and treatments have been introduced, for example, the discovery of some direct antiviral drugs that can eliminate the need for combined interferon therapy and can achieve a higher cure rates, these drugs have fewer side effects, and decompensated hepatitis C cirrhosis can be safely applied, so we will have more methods and weapons to eliminate hepatitis C in the future.