Watchful waiting

Watchful waiting doesn't mean that you will be doing nothing. Instead, it means that you and your doctor will carefully monitor the progression of your hepatitis C, keeping treatment with currently available medications in mind as an option.

Good candidates for watchful waiting are patients with mild liver disease or patients in whom interferon and ribavirin could be particularly dangerous. This includes patients with serious heart, lung or kidney disease, psychiatric disease, or cancer, or patients older than 75.

Watchful waiting involves the following:

• having liver enzyme blood tests once or twice a year
• having a liver biopsy every 3 to 5 years
• going to regular doctor appointments
• following your doctor's lifestyle recommendations, such as avoiding alcohol, to limit further damage to your liver

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