Newsroom

New study could improve access to liver transplants for people with HIV


March 27, 2011

New research led by Dr. Curtis Cooper could help change the common practice in some institutions of avoiding giving liver transplants to people with HIV. Using a novel “synthetic cohort” method of analyzing data from 64 studies, Dr. Cooper and his colleagues found that contrary to popular belief, liver transplants are just as beneficial in people with HIV as they are in people without HIV. Their analysis also shows that among people with HIV, those who required a liver transplant because of a hepatitis B virus co-infection fared eight times better than those who required a transplant for another reason (such as hepatitis C virus co-infection). See AIDS journal for details.

Dr. Cooper is an Infectious Disease Specialist at The Ottawa Hospital, Clinical Investigator at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Ottawa.