Clinical course of lamivudine monotherapy in patients with decompensated cirrhosis due to HBeAg negative chronic HBV infection.

Objectives: We have evaluated the efficacy of long-term lamivudine monotherapy in patients with decompensated HBeAg-negative/HBV-DNA positive cirrhosis.

Methods: We analyzed the clinical course and outcome of lamivudine treatment in 30 consecutive cirrhotics and compared with 30 HBV untreated historical HBeAg-negative controls matched for age and gender.

Results: Significant clinical improvement, defined as a reduction of at least two points in Child-Pugh score was observed in 23 of the 30 treated patients (76.