logical stabilisation (>12 months after restarting dialysis) on the basis of previous experience showing that most cases of rejection occurred before this time interval. With regard to the rate of side-effects, this may be due to the fact that a high dose of interferon was used by the authors, while ribavirin was avoided in most cases. Conversely, and as reported in our paper, we carefully assessed the type and dosage of pegylated interferon (i.e., peginterferon alpha-2a, 135 lg/weekly) due to

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... he presence of chronic renal failure and individually tailored the dosage of ribavirin to avoid even more severe anaemia which was controlled by administration of erythropoietin. This strategy resulted in a strong anti-viral effect and avoided, in most instances, major side-effects and, probably, also rejection. To better define the use of graftectomy, further studies, on a larger series, are necessary focusing on comparisons between the rejection rates in patients receiving interferon and those not receiving interferon. On the basis of our experience and available data, anti-viral treatment should, in our opinion, be delayed until 12 months after graft loss. We wish to thank Dr. Sperl who gave us the opportunity to emphasize these points which complete our results and would, no doubt, contribute to improving the pharmacological approach with pegylated interferon and ribavirin in this particular category of patients.