Surveillance decision

Surveillance decision

We will not update the guideline on hepatitis B (chronic): diagnosis and management at this time.

During surveillance editorial or factual corrections were identified. Details are included in appendix A: summary of evidence from surveillance.

Reason for the decision

Assessing the evidence

We found 59 studies through surveillance of this guideline.

This included evidence on the effectiveness of antiviral therapy (tenofovir disoproxil, telbivudine, entecavir, adefovir and peginterferon alfa‑2a) to treat people with chronic hepatitis B viral infection. Evidence was also included on the diagnostic accuracy of non-invasive methods (transient elastography, FibroTest, FIB-4 index and FibroScan) to assess the severity of necro-inflammatory activity and liver fibrosis. The evidence was considered to support current recommendations.

We asked topic experts whether this evidence would affect current recommendations. Generally, the topic experts agreed that the new evidence would not impact recommendations in these areas.

We did not find any evidence related to patient information, assessment and referral in primary care, genotype testing and frequency of monitoring tests for chronic hepatitis B infection markers or early hepatocellular carcinoma detection.

Equalities

No equalities issues were identified during the surveillance process.

Overall decision

After considering all the evidence and views of topic experts and stakeholders, we decided that no update is necessary for this guideline.

See how we made the decision for further information.


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