REGULARITY OF ENCEPHALITIS-B APPARENT EPITOPE SEROPOSITIVITY RATES IN VICTIMS UNDER DELIBERATION FOR CORONARY SURGICAL PROCEDURE

Objective: To control the incidence of hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBs-Ag) in patients with heart disease.

Place and Duration: In the Cardiac Surgery department of Mayo Hospital Lahore for one year duration from December 2018 to November 2019.

Material and Method: One hundred more patients were admitted to cardiac surgery at the Lahore Punjab Cardiology Institute. All patients with negative HBs-Ag pre-surgery were selected. They were named 04-06 months after surgery to reassess HBs-Ag status.

Results: Three out of 100 patients (3%) obtained a positive HBs-Ag test after 04–06 months of heart surgery.

Conclusion: Heart surgery is a safe procedure as a risk of HBs-Ag seroconversion; HBs-Ag seroconversion was present in 3% of patients. More stringent diagnostic and preventive measures are needed to further reduce the spread of hepatitis B infection.

Keywords: hepatitis B infection, HBs-Ag seroconversion, heart surgery