title: Treatment of centrally located hepatocellular carcinoma with central hepatectomy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  For treatment of centrally located hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), central hepatectomy (including central trisegmentectomy [Couinaud's segments 4, 5, and 8] and anterior segmentectomy [Couinaud's segments 5 and 8]) may have an important advantage (ie, preservation of nontumorous parenchyma) over conventional lobectomy or extended lobectomy. For determination of the efficacy of this technique, we compared the outcomes of patients with HCC who underwent treatment with the central and conventional methods.
  
  
  METHODS
  In our institute, 52 patients with HCC underwent treatment with central hepatectomy (group 1) and 63 patients with comparable tumor size underwent treatment with conventional major hepatectomy (group 2) from November 1993 to April 1999. Overall patient survival and disease-free survival rates were calculated and analyzed. The possible prognostic risk factors for patient and disease-free survival in group 1 were analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Group 1 had comparable overall patient and disease-free survival rates with those of group 2. Vascular invasion, higher pathology grading, and resection margin less than 1 cm appeared to be the prognostic factors for overall patient survival, and vascular invasion was the only risk factor for disease-free survival.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Central hepatectomy is a safe and effective operative procedure for the treatment of centrally located HCC. The patient and disease-free survival rates were the same as those of conventional major hepatectomy. Although it is technically more demanding, central hepatectomy preserves more nontumor liver parenchyma, which is important for the survival of those patients with liver cirrhosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, ROC.
authors.forename: Rey-Heng
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Po-Huang
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Yue-Cune
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Ming-Chih
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.forename: Sen-Chang
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Yu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006498:Hepatectomy / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016019:Survival Analysis; D016896:Treatment Outcome