title: Small hepatocellular carcinomas: ultrasonography guided percutaneous radiofrequency ablation.
abstract: Current guidelines advocate percutaneous radiofrequency (RF) ablation as a standard treatment of early stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) for up to three tumors ≤3 cm in diameter. The local efficacy evaluated with short-term radiological examination may be overrated, whereas that assessed by histopathological measure might be underestimated. Long-term clinical follow-up studies guarantee the effectiveness of RF ablation for small HCC, which is now almost comparable in benefits to surgical resection. US is the most common guiding modality for percutaneous RF ablation for small HCC. However, the technical feasibility is often limited due to poor conspicuity of the index tumor on US. Implementation of artificial ascites, contrast-enhanced harmonic US, and fusion imaging of US with CT/MR can be helpful to enhance the technical feasibility of US-guided RF ablation of small HCC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Konkuk University School of Medicine, 4-12 Hwayang-dong, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, 143-729, South Korea.
authors.forename: Young Jun
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Min Woo
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Hee Sun
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Park
mesh_terms: D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery*; D017115:Catheter Ablation / Q000379:methods*; D003287:Contrast Media; D018450:Disease Progression; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery*; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D012307:Risk Factors; D018084:Ultrasonography, Interventional
chemical_list: D003287:Contrast Media