Journal of Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery

, Volume 11, Issue 1, pp 17–20 | Cite as

Preoperative portal vein embolization: is it useful?

  • Tadatoshi Takayama
  • Masatoshi Makuuchi
Surgeon at work

Background/Purpose

Portal vein embolization (PVE) before hepatectomy is aimed to induce an atrophy of the embolized lobe to be resected, with a compensatory hypertrophy of the counterlobe to be preserved.

Methods

To answer the question “Is it useful?,” we reviewed the clinical outcome in 161 patients undergoing major hepatectomy after PVE for various hepatobiliary tumors.

Results

All the patients tolerated PVE well, and hepatic functional data returned to the baseline levels within a week. The left liver volume increased by a median of 8% (range 2%–14%) after the right PVE. The 20 patients undergoing right hepatectomy for hepatocellular carcinoma had a mean indocyanine green retention rate at 15 min of 16% (SD 4%), and the 24 patients with liver metastases underwent right hepatectomy with additional left liver resection. Hepatectomy procedures comprised right or extended right hepatectomy (n = 105), left or extended left hepatectomy (n = 13), hepatopancreatoduodenectomy (n = 12), and less extensive hepatectomies (n = 31). As a whole, the operative morbidity and mortality rates were 19% and 1.2%, respectively. Hepatopancreatoduodenectomy carried no operative mortality. The cumulative 5-year survival rates were 44% in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and 60% in patients with metastatic tumor.

Conclusions

PVE is useful for performing extensive hepatectomy in patients with mild hepatic dysfunction, in those with bilobar tumors, or in those undergoing hepatopancreatoduodenectomy.

Key words

Portal vein embolization Hepatectomy Atrophy-hypertrophy 

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag Tokyo 2004

Authors and Affiliations

  • Tadatoshi Takayama
    • 1
  • Masatoshi Makuuchi
    • 2
  1. 1.Third Department of SurgeryNihon University School of MedicineTokyoJapan
  2. 2.Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery Division, Department of Surgery, Graduate School of MedicineUniversity of TokyoTokyoJapan

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