Treatment Outcomes of Hepatitis C-Infected Patients in Specialty Clinic vs. Primary Care Physician Clinic: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract EN

Background.

Oral direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) provide an exceptional opportunity to treat hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection.

Goals.

We compared the treatment outcomes between specialty and primary care physician (PCP) clinics for patients treated with DAAs.

Methods.

We performed a retrospective analysis of patients treated for HCV in our PCP clinics and specialty; liver and gastroenterology clinics and gastroenterology clinics.

We used the two-sided t-test and the chi-square test to compare the means of continuous and categorical variables, respectively.

Results.

Data from a total of 377 patients was analyzed (PCP clinic: n=185 and specialty clinic: n=192).

There was no significant difference between age, race, and gender.

Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) and Child-Turcotte-Pugh (CTP) scores were comparable at baseline.

Greater than 90% of the patients achieved sustained virological response (SVR) with no difference between the groups.

Conclusions.

Uncomplicated patients can be treated for hepatitis C by their PCPs with DAAs with similar treatment outcomes to specialty clinics.

There should be explicit guidelines on patient eligibility for treatment by PCPs vs.

specialists.