Risk of liver retransplantation for viral hepatitis.

The risk of viral recurrence after liver transplantation for viral related liver disease is high. Viral reinfection is characterized by a viral reactivation, high amount of virus, difficulty to control viral replication in these immunosuppressed patients, occurrence of graft disease, and sometimes graft failure. For these reasons, retransplantation for viral recurrence is controversial due to the high risk of recurrence on the second graft and to the overall poor results in a context of organ shortage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]