{
  "abstract": "Long-term survival of patients undergoing liver transplantation for hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related liver disease has markedly improved due to the introduction of hepatitis B immunoglobulins (HBIG) in the 1990s and the availability of nucleos(t)ide analogues (NA) with a high barrier to resistance 20 years ago. Current international and national guidelines, including those from the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), the European Liver and Intestine Transplant Association (ELITA), the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) and the British Transplantation Society, recommend NA therapy before liver transplantation, high dose HBIG during the anhepatic phase of liver transplantation and combined HBIG and NA prophylaxis to prevent HBV recurrence after transplantation.1–4 HBIG maintenance is, however, costly and inconvenient; its benefit has been demonstrated largely in the era of NAs with low barrier to resistance. Therefore, many transplant centres have developed HBIG-sparing strategies. The current EASL guideline indeed suggests to consider NA-based HBIG-free maintenance in transplant recipients with low risk for HBV recurrence.3 Of note, however, data comparing standard combination prophylaxis and HBIG-free maintenance prophylaxis are very limited to date, prospective studies are sparse and no randomised controlled trials have been performed.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "University Hospital Freiburg, Department of Internal Medicine II (Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Endocrinology and Infectiology), Freiburg, Germany",
        "University of Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, Freiburg, Germany"
      ],
      "name": "Tobias Boettler"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University Hospital Cologne, Cologne, Germany",
        "University of Cologne, Faculty of Medicine, Cologne, Germany"
      ],
      "name": "Christoph Neumann-Haefelin"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Hepatitis B immunoglobulins after liver transplantation: essential early, optional later?",
  "uid": "e71717bb-f07a-5aae-8028-8e9f5da4762e"
}