TY - JOUR AU - Gerada, Jurgen AU - Borg, Elaine AU - Formosa, Denise AU - Magro, Rosalie AU - Pocock, James PY - 2013/06/03 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Tenofovir as Rescue Therapy Following Clinical Failure to Lamivudine in Severe Acute Hepatitis B JF - Mediterranean Journal of Hematology and Infectious Diseases JA - Mediterr J Hematol Infect Dis VL - 5 IS - 1 SE - Case Reports DO - 10.4084/mjhid.2013.035 UR - https://www.mjhid.org/mjhid/article/view/2013.035 SP - e2013035 AB - <p>Acute hepatitis B (AHB) is a self-limiting condition in more than 95% of cases. Treatment is however recommended in patients with severe AHB (&lt;1% of cases), aiming to prevent liver failure and death. Various nucleos(t)ide analogues (NA) have been found to be effective in severe AHB, although NA-resistant strains causing AHB have been also recently reported. The use of tenofovir in this setting has only been reported once with a favorable outcome. We hereby report a 47-year-old treatment-naïve male, who developed severe AHB and was treated with lamivudine (LMV). Initial rapid biochemical response was followed by biochemical breakthrough after 9 days, suggesting LMV resistance. Rescue therapy with ‘add-on’ tenofovir brought about a sustained improvement in biochemical, serological and virological markers until HBsAg was lost after 4 months. Thus, this is the second case reporting the successful use of tenofovir in severe AHB.</p> ER -