Background/aims: It is uncertain if patients coinfected with hepatitis C and HIV are more likely to suffer fulminant hepatic failure (FHF) when compared to patients with HIV-only.
Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study using national administrative databases from the Department of Veterans Affairs in patients hospitalized for the first time with HIV and/or hepatitis C between 10/1991 and 9/2000. Fulminant hepatic failure was defined as occurring after the index hospitalization through 9/2001 in the absence of pre-existing liver disease. We calculated incidence rates, Kaplan Meier cumulative incidence curves, and Cox proportional hazards ratios while adjusting for demographics and other potential confounders.
Results: We identified 11,678 patients with HIV-only and 4761 patients with coinfection. There were 92 cases of fulminant hepatic failure yielding an incidence rate of 1.1/1000 person-years and 2.5/1000 person-years in the HIV-only and coinfected groups. The cumulative incidence of fulminant hepatic failure in the coinfected group was higher than in the HIV-only group (P<0.0001). The risk of fulminant hepatic failure in patients with coinfection compared to HIV-only during the HAART era was several folds higher than that during the pre-HAART era.
Conclusions: HAART and hepatitis C coinfection appeared to act synergistically in HIV-infected patients to increase the risk of fulminant hepatic failure, a rare but often fatal disease.