Postoperative recurrence in hepatocellular carcinoma: Comparison between percutaneous ethanol injection and radiofrequency ablation.
OBJECTIVE
Recently percutaneous ethanol injection (PEI) turned into percutaneous radiofrequency ablation (PRFA), and it has become widely used for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The present study was to compare the incidence in postoperative HCC recurrence between these two therapeutic approaches.


METHODS
One hundred and sixty-eight first-time HCC in patient cases were chosen for PEI (n=94) and PRFA (n=74). The localized recurrence rate based on the operator's experience in percutaneous treatment for HCC (on <5 years versus >/=5 years experience) was examined.


RESULTS
The PRFA group demonstrated a significantly lower localized recurrence rate within 2 years than the PEI group (8% and 22%, respectively, P<0.01). The local recurrence rate of HCC within 2 years after PEI was significantly lower in those for whom the operator's experience was more than 5 years compared to those for whom it was less than 5 years (12% versus 24%, respectively, P<0.05). In contrast, after PRFA there was no significant difference between these two groups of <5 years and of >/=5 years experience (8% versus 8%, respectively, P=0.98).


CONCLUSIONS
The present study demonstrated that PRFA resulted in a lower rate of local recurrence in comparison to conventional PEI, regardless of the operator's experience.
Iwata
Kaoru
K
Third Department of Medicine, Fukuoka University School of Medicine, 7-45-1 Nanakuma, Jonan-ku, Fukuoka City 814-0180, Japan.
Sohda
Tetsuro
T
Nishizawa
Shinya
S
Nakane
Hidetoshi
H
Yoshikane
Makoto
M
Koyama
Yasuhiro
Y
Morihara
Daisuke
D
Takeyama
Yasuaki
Y
Uehara
Yuko
Y
Kitamura
Yuji
Y
Irie
Makoto
M
Syakadou
Satoshi
S
Yokoyama
Masanori
M
Kamimura
Seiichiro
S
Watanabe
Hiroshi
H
Sakisaka
Shotaro
S