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Impact of direct‐acting antiviral regimens on mortality and morbidity outcomes in patients with chronic hepatitis c: Systematic review and meta‐analysis

The long‐term effects of direct‐acting antiviral therapies (DAAs) for chronic hepatitis C (CHC) remain uncertain. The objective of this systematic review and meta‐analysis was to assess the impact of DAAs on CHC progression and mortality. We searched Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid EMBASE and PubMed databases (January 2011 to March 2020) for studies that compared the efficacy of DAAs to a non‐DAA control in patients with CHC. Main outcomes were the adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for mortality, liver decompensation, HCC occurrence and recurrence. Pooled estimates of HRs were determined using random‐effects meta‐analyses with inverse variance weighting, with sensitivity analyses and meta‐regression to explore the effects of clinical factors. We identified 39 articles for the primary analysis. Compared with unexposed individuals, patients treated with DAA had a reduced risk of death (HR; CI = 0.44; 0.38‐0.52), decompensation (HR; CI = 0.54; 0.38‐ 0.76) and HCC occurrence (HR; CI = 0.72; 0.61‐ 0.86). The protective effect of DAA on HCC recurrence was less clear (HR; CI = 0.72; 0.44‐1.16). Sustained virologic response (SVR) attainment was a significant predictor of reduced mortality (HR; CI = 0.33; 0.23‐0.46), decompensation (HR; CI = 0.11; 0.05‐0.24), HCC occurrence (HR; CI = 0.31; 0.27‐0.37) and HCC recurrence (HR; CI = 0.32; 0.20‐0.51). Meta‐regression showed no evidence of effect modification by patient age, sex, presence of cirrhosis or length of follow‐up. In conclusion, our findings show protective effects of DAA treatment and DAA‐related SVR on CHC progression and mortality.