[Effectiveness of pegylated interferon alfa 2a and ribavirin for chronic hepatitis C in clinical practice]

Nowadays, combination therapy with peginteferon plus ribavirin is the standard treatment for chronic hepatitis C. This scheme achieves, according to randomized and controlled trials, viral eradication in 54% to 56% of treated patients (42% to 46% of patients infected with genotype 1 and 76% to 82% of those with genotypes 2 or 3).

To evaluate the effectiveness of combined treatment with peginteferon alpha 2a and ribavirin for chronic hepatitis C, in daily clinical practice.

All patients with chronic hepatitis C who were treated by the authors with combined treatment (peginteeferon alpha 2a plus ribavirin), from January 2001 to July 2008, were included. Patients who completed the treatment as well as those that ended it earlier were included in the analysis.

In this retrospective and multicentric study 75 patients with chronic hepatitis C treated with peginterferon alpha 2a plus ribavirin were enrolled (male gender represented 60%, average age was 42.3 years, genotype 1 meant 58.6% and 31.5% of patients had cirrhosis). The global sustained virological response, according to intention-to-treat analysis, was observed in 37 patients (49%).

The global results in daily clinical practice showed a viral eradication rate close to that published by controlled and randomized studies.