Alcohol consumption might be beneficial for the patients with resectable liver cancer due to its induction of tolerance to the ischemia-reperfusion injury.
Up to now, curative hepatectomy remains the best treatment for patients with liver cancer, during which ischemia/reperfusion injuries of the liver is inevitable. While the ischemia/reperfusion is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients undergone hepatectomy and transplantation, so how to reduce it to an acceptable level and to enhance the tolerance of liver to ischemia/reperfusion injury seem to be an eternal challenge for the hepatobiliary surgeon. Considering the broad protective effect of alcohol, we rationally proposed that the protection induced by ethanol consumption might take place without creature species limitation and without organ specific. To our interests, the liver is the most important place where the alcohol mainly metabolized in our body. The metabolic process of alcohol subsequently induces oxidative stress and inflammatory reaction to the liver. If it simulates the same effect as it acts on other organs, alcohol consumption might be advantageous to the liver undergone subsequent ischemia/reperfusion injuries. Since we are not trying to cure diseases occurring only in rats, the likely relevance of human liver injury should be carefully considered. To adequately evaluate our hypothesis that ethanol preconditioning before liver surgery may do good for the patients due to its induction of the tolerance of the liver to ischemia and reperfusion injuries, at least two studies need to be performed in future. The objective is to find out a simple and effective method to prevent the ischemia/reperfusion injuries during hepatectomy as well as other liver surgery and improve the perioperative outcome of the affected patients. Whether alcohol consumption can protect the liver ischemia/reperfusion injuries both from animals to human, or can only take effect in experiments, or neither of them? All these questions might be answered by the presumed studies. Of course, it would be more useful to testify the true effects of ethanol preconditioning in a clinical situation.
Xiaobin
Feng
F
Institute of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, 30# Gao Tanyan Street, Shapingba District, Chongqing 400038, PR China. fengxiaobin200708@yahoo.com.cn
Jian
Chen
C
Yuming
Guo
G
Shuguo
Zheng
Z
Peng
Jiang
J
Xiaowu
Li
L
Jiahong
Dong
D