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The effects of hepatitis B
Last reviewed: 07.07.2025
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The most common outcome of hepatitis B is recovery with complete restoration of liver function. As with hepatitis A, recovery with an anatomical defect (liver fibrosis) or the formation of various complications from the biliary tract and gastrointestinal tract is also possible. These consequences of hepatitis B are practically no different from those of hepatitis A.
There is evidence in the literature that acute hepatitis B results in the development of chronic hepatitis in 1.8-18.8% of cases. However, these data cannot be considered final, since studies on this issue were conducted mainly without determining all serological markers of viral hepatitis A, B, C, D, etc.
To resolve the issue of the possibility of developing chronic hepatitis as a result of acute hepatitis B, a comprehensive study of all specific markers for laboratory identification of hepatitis A, B and D (anti-HAV class IgM, HBsAg, anti-HBc IgM, HBeAg, anti-HBe, anti-HDV) is carried out in all children who have been hospitalized over the past 5 years with a diagnosis of acute hepatitis B.
As a result of a comprehensive examination and dynamic observation, the final diagnosis of the patients was as follows: 70% had acute hepatitis B, 16.7% had hepatitis B and D co-infection, 8% had primary chronic latent hepatitis B, and 5.3% had acute hepatitis A against the background of chronic HBV infection. In no case of acute, manifest hepatitis B was chronic hepatitis developed.
In practical work, in all cases of chronic hepatitis B, which appears to develop as a result of acute infection, it is necessary to exclude hepatitis of other etiology against the background of latent HBV infection. Such an approach will allow avoiding the erroneous idea of the development of chronic hepatitis as a result of acute manifest hepatitis B.
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