[Surgery for patients with primary liver cancer: report of 1,038 patients].
OBJECTIVE
To investigate methods for enhancing safety of and improving the survival in patients with primary liver cancer (PLC).


METHODS
One thousand and thirty eight patients with PLC were treated in our hospital from January 1990 to December 1998. The early period group (from January 1990 to December 1996) consisted of 731 patients [312 patients (42.7%) receiving liver resection]; the late period group (from January 1997 to December 1998) included 307 patients [217 patients (70.7%) receiving liver resection].


RESULTS
The mortality within one month after hepatectomy was 2.24% in the early group and 0.74% in the late group. The 1-, 3- and 5-year survival rates were 73.1%, 54.2%, and 34.0% respectively in patients undergoing hepatectomy in the early group and 91.1%, 63.8% and 40.2% in the late group.


CONCLUSIONS
Regular follow-up of high risk patients is helpful to discover small PLC. High proportion of small PLC, progress of perioperative management, and improvement of operative techniques including hepatopetal blood occlusion of half liver or in vitro-bypass through bio-pump during hepatectomy might be important approaches to enhance the safety of surgical treatment and improve the prognosis of patients with PLC.
Yan
L
L
Department of Surgery, First University Hospital, West China University of Medical Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China.
Zeng
Y
Y
Wen
T
T
Lu
S
S
Li
B
B
Chen
X
X
Jin
L
L
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate