Hepatitis B, Transfusions and Renal Transplantation

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Abstract
Pirson and his colleagues report elsewhere in this issue of the Journal that patients found to have hepatitis B surface antigen (HBs Ag) in their circulation before or after renal transplantation have a fivefold increase in deaths (10 deaths in 61 patients) resulting from hepatic failure than HBs Ag-negative patients (two deaths in 60). This increased mortality, which was not noted in several previous series1 , 2 during shorter periods of observation, is first discerned three years after transplantation. At first glance, we found this report surprising since only 10 of 650 patients receiving transplants at our institution have died . . .