title: Surgical treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma on cirrhosis: a Western experience.
abstract: Recent improvements on the therapeutical management of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) on cirrhosis have led to further evaluate the role of surgery for this disease. In a 15-year period we have evaluated 532 cirrhotics with HCC on cirrhosis. Contraindications for surgery were founded in 170 (31.9%); 37 of them received a transarterial chemoembolization and 2 a percutaneous ethanol injection. Laparotomy was performed in 315 (59.2%) cases, but in 77 surgical treatment was contraindicated due to unexpected intraoperative findings. A liver resection was performed in 238 (44.7%) patients, representing the 26.1% of all liver resections performed at our Department. Seventy-eight (32.8%) were subsegmentectomies, 143 (60.1%) segmentectomies (including 1 to 3 anatomical segments) and 17 major hepatectomies. Overall 30-day mortality was 4.6%: 9.3% during years 83-91 and 0.8% during following years (P<0.005). Five-year actuarial survival rate was 41.3%. The remaining 47 (8.8%) patients were placed on the waiting list for orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) and 41 already operated on. Operative mortality was 6.2% and 5-year actuarial survival rate 58.1%. The persistent shortage of organ donor represents the major factor limiting the application of liver transplantation for a larger number of patients carrying HCC on cirrhosis. Liver resection remains the option to be considered for all the patients with such a disease, even if in a large proportion of cases this procedure offers only a limited survival.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery and Transplantation - University of Bologna - Sant'Orsola Hospital, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mazziotti
authors.forename: G L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Grazi
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cavallari
mesh_terms: D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000150:complications / Q000601:surgery*; D006498:Hepatectomy / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000401:mortality; D006801:Humans; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000150:complications*; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000601:surgery*; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D016019:Survival Analysis; D019366:Western World