Etiological structure, epidemiological and clinical features of acute viral hepatitis in Kaunas Clinical Hospital during 2010-2015 years.

Background. Viral hepatitis is one of the most serious health problems in Lithuania and the world. There are millions of people infected and new cases are registered every year. Viral hepatitis is very common cause of liver failure and death in developed and developing countries. The source of infection often remains unknown and this makes a lot of problems in diagnostics and this increases chances of infecting other people. Objective. To evaluate the etiology, epidemiology, and clinical features of acute viral hepatitis in Kaunas Clinical Hospital during 2010-2015. Methods. Object of this research was all adult patients, who were diagnosed with acute viral hepatitis in Kaunas Clinical Hospital during 2010-2015. The information that has been collected from their case history cards retrospectively was patients’ age, gender, possible ways of contamination, prodrome symptoms, symptoms in hospital, thehighest results of blood tests, which showed liver damage. Statistical analysis was done using “IBM SPSS Statistics 23” and “Microsoft Excel 2016” software. Results. Out of 97 patients, who were diagnosed with acute viral hepatitis in Kaunas Clinical Hospital during 2010-2015, types of hepatitis were: hepatitis A was diagnosed to 9 patients (9%), hepatitis B – 43 (45%), hepatitis C – 37 (38%) and not specified hepatitis – 8 patients (8%). Mean patient age was 45.87 years. The most common cause of infection for patients with hepatitis A was a travel to countries of high level of endemicity (44.4%). For hepatitis B and C the cause mostly remained unknown. During prodrome period most frequent symptoms were weakness and dyspeptic symptoms. Jaundice and darkened urine were seen in all patients with A and not specified hepatitis, for hepatitis B – respectively 95.35% and 98.23%, for hepatitis C – respectively 94.59% and 96.18%. Conclusion. During 2010-2015 in Kaunas Clinical Hospital there were patients treated A, B, C and not specified acute viral hepatitis. Hepatitis B was diagnosed the most frequently. Throughout these years in Kaunas Clinical Hospital patients, who were diagnosed with hepatitis A, were mostly infected while visiting countries of level of endemicity of the disease. Patients with hepatitis B and C mostly did not know how they got infected. During prodrome period, almost all patients with acute viral hepatitis felt weakness, nausea, dyspeptic symptoms, the most patients with hepatitis A felt fever like symptoms. Almost all patients suffered from jaundice syndrome. AST and ALT activity was risen in all cases. Prothrombin index was the lowest for patients with hepatitis B and mostly normal for hepatitis C