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    Subst Abuse Treat Prev Policy. 2007 Feb 1;2:5.

    Liver transplant and hepatitis C in methadone maintenance therapy: a case report.

    Hancock MM, Prosser CC, Ransibrahmanakul K, Lester L, Craemer E, Bourgeois JA, Rossaro L.

    Section of Transplant Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, University of California Davis Medical Center, 4150 V Street, PSSB, Suite 3500, Sacramento, CA 95817, USA. mhancock@lumc.edu

    Methadone maintenance therapy for the treatment of opioid dependence continues to carry a social stigma. Until recently, patients on methadone were not considered for liver transplantation. We describe the first case of a patient on methadone who received a liver transplant for end stage liver disease and was successfully treated for recurrent hepatitis C. More than five years post transplant and three years post viral clearance, the patient continues to do well and is stable on low-dose methadone. This case emphasizes the need to reconsider the non-evidence based policy adopted by transplant centers that require methadone maintenance therapy patients to stop methadone prior to consideration for transplant evaluation.

    PMID: 17270050 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

    PMCID: 1797015

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    Patient drug information

    • Methadone (Dolophine®, Methadose®, Methadose® Oral Concentrate)

      Methadone is used to relieve moderate to severe pain that has not been relieved by non-narcotic pain relievers. It also is used to prevent withdrawal symptoms in patients who were addicted to opiate drugs and are enrolle...

    • Ribavirin (Copegus®, Rebetol®)

      Ribavirin is used with another medication called an interferon to treat hepatitis C. Ribavirin is in a class of antiviral medications called nucleoside analogues. It works by stopping the virus that causes hepatitis C fr...