Cholangiocarcinoma accounts for approximately 10% of all hepatobiliary tumors and represents 3% of all new-diagnosed malignancies worldwide. Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (i-CCA) accounts for 10% ...of all cases, perihilar (h-CCA) cholangiocarcinoma represents two-thirds of the cases, while distal cholangiocarcinoma accounts for the remaining quarter. Originally described by Klatskin in 1965, h-CCA represents one of the most challenging tumors for hepatobiliary surgeons, mainly because of the anatomical vascular relationships of the biliary confluence at the hepatic hilum. Surgery is the only curative option, with the goal of a radical, margin-negative (R0) tumor resection. Continuous efforts have been made by hepatobiliary surgeons in order to achieve R0 resections, leading to the progressive development of aggressive approaches that include extended hepatectomies, associating liver partition, and portal vein ligation for staged hepatectomy, pre-operative portal vein embolization, and vascular resections. i-CCA is an aggressive biliary cancer that arises from the biliary epithelium proximal to the second-degree bile ducts. The incidence of i-CCA is dramatically increasing worldwide, and surgical resection is the only potentially curative therapy. An aggressive surgical approach, including extended liver resection and vascular reconstruction, and a greater application of systemic therapy and locoregional treatments could lead to an increase in the resection rate and the overall survival in selected i-CCA patients. Improvements achieved over the last two decades and the encouraging results recently reported have led to liver transplantation now being considered an appropriate indication for CCA patients.
Abstract Background As compared with traditional laparoscopy, robotic-assisted surgery provides better EndoWrist instruments and three-dimensional visualization of the operative field. Studies ...published so far indicate that living donor nephrectomy using the robot-assisted technique is safe, feasible, and provides remarkable advantages for the patients. Methods From 5 papers reporting detailed descriptions of surgical technique for robotic assisted nephrectomy (RAN) in living donor kidney transplantation, we have gathered information about the surgical techniques as well as about patients’ intra- and postoperative outcome. Data from these articles were analyzed together with the data from our own experience (33 cases) so that the total number of analyzed cases was 292. Results In the analyzed populations, no case of donor death occurred, and no case developed complication above grade 2 of Clavien score. Perioperative complications occurred in 37 of the 292 patients (12.6%). Accidental acute hemorrhage occurred in 5 of the 292 cases (1.7%). The average overall intraoperative blood loss was 67.8 mL (range 10 to 1,500). The average warm ischemia time was 3.5 minutes (range .58 to 7.6). Conversion to the open technique occurred in only 4 cases (1.3%). The average overall operative time was 192 minutes (range 60 to 400). The average length of the hospital stay was 2.7 days (range 1 to 10). Conclusions Safety and feasibility of RAN are pointed out in all the reviewed article, both as hand-assisted and as totally robotic technique. RAN appears to be significantly easier for the surgeons and the results are comparable with the ones obtained with the pure laparoscopic technique.
Objectives
To evaluate the inter-observer reliability of modified Response Evaluation Criteria In Solid Tumours (mRECIST) of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) undergoing neo-adjuvant ...treatments before liver transplant (LT). The agreement of tumor number, size, transplant criteria, and the radiological-pathological concordance were also assessed.
Methods
A total of 180 radiological studies before/after neo-adjuvant therapies performed on 90 patients prior to LT were reviewed from three expert centers. Kappa-statistic and intraclass correlation (ICC) were evaluated on mRECIST and on tumoral features. Complete radiological response (CR) was compared with complete pathological response (CPR).
Results
Before neo-adjuvant therapies, the agreement on tumor number, size, and transplant criteria ranged from moderate (defined as ICC of 0.41–0.60) to almost perfect (ICC of 0.81–0.99), being higher with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) than CT (0.657–0.899 and 0.422–0.776, respectively). After neo-adjuvant therapies, the agreement decreased, as ICCs ranged between 0.518 and 0.663 with MRI and between 0.508 and 0.677 with CT. Concordant mRECIST pairs were 201 of 270 reviews (76.3%) with a kappa of 0.648 indicating substantial agreement. When the three observers completely agreed on CR, the positive predictive value for CPR was 51.6%. The negative predictive value was 94.2% with a kappa of 0.512 indicating fair agreement between radiology and pathology.
Conclusions
mRECIST agreement was substantial among the three observers involved. The agreement on tumor number, size, and transplant criteria ranged from moderate to almost perfect, with the highest ICCs obtained with MRI before neo-adjuvant therapies. Finally, the predictive value of mRECIST in the diagnosis of CPR was only fair.
Key Points
•
The review of 180 radiological exams of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma before and after neo-adjuvant therapies showed that the concordance among three different raters on mRECIST diagnosis was substantial.
•
The inter-observer reliability on fulfilment of transplant criteria slightly decreased when evaluated through CT and after loco-regional therapies.
•
The radiological diagnosis of complete response after neo-adjuvant therapies was predictive of complete pathological response in only 51.6% of cases.
Background
The optimal surgical strategy to lessen the risk of hepatocarcinoma (HCC) recurrence is debated. This study aimed to investigate the role of anatomic resection (AR) and parenchyma-sparing ...resection (PSR) in HCC recurrence patterns.
Methods
The study analyzed 384 cirrhotic patients with a first diagnosis of HCC. Of these patients, 142 underwent AR, and 242 underwent PSR. The two groups were unbalanced at the univariate analysis. To minimize this bias, a 1:1 propensity score-matching analysis (PSA) was used. Disease-free survival (DFS) curves were analyzed by the Kaplan-Maier method.
Results
The PSA allowed pairing of 200 patients (100 for AR and 100 for PSR). In this study, 59 patients (62.8%) had recurrence after AR compared with 58 patients (63.7%) after PSR (
p
= 0.891). The rates of local recurrence were respectively 15.3% and 15.5% (
p
= 0.968). When microvascular invasion was considered, the median DFS was 10.7 months for AR and 9.4 months for PSR (
p
= 0.607). In comparisons of AR and PSR, DFS did not differ significantly between subgroups with high histologic grading (
p
= 0.520), multiple nodules (
p
= 0.307), and Child–Pugh B (
p
= 0.679).
Conclusion
Excision of the anatomic segment did not seem to reduce the rate of relapse or recurrence patterns significantly, even in high-risk subgroups.
Transplantable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) represents a highly debated issue due to the overlap between indications for liver resection (LR) and transplantation (LT) in patients suitable for both.
...Between January 2000 and December 2012, five hundred and twenty-four transplantable patients affected by HCC were identified among resected patients. Two regression models were constructed to classify patients into 2 groups pre-low and pre-high risk based on preoperative variables and then to reclassify pre-low-risk patients according to postoperative variables into either post-low or post-high-risk. Additionally, a cohort of patients with comparable baseline characteristics who underwent LT were similarly classified into pre-low and pre-high-risk groups and compared with the resected patients in terms of survival.
Cirrhosis, aspartate transaminase, α-fetoprotein, Model for End-Stage Liver Disease score, number of nodules, and diameter of the largest nodule were preoperatively found to be significantly related to overall survival post-LR. Microvascular invasion and satellites were selected to reclassify prognosis in the resulting preoperative low-risk group into post-high risk. The converted group (post-high) demonstrated the same 5-year survival as the pre-high group. Patients undergoing LT had better survival overall than those undergoing LR, with the exception of pre-low LT and post-low LR (confirmed low-risk LR) who had similar outcomes.
The new models were strongly predictive of patients' likelihood of survival after LR for HCC on liver cirrhosis. Liver transplantation offers a survival advantage over LR, except in low-risk groups where both modalities might be comparable.
AIM To develop a prognostic scoring system for overall survival(OS) of patients undergoing liver resection(LR) for hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC).METHODS Consecutive patients who underwent curative LR ...for HCC between 2000 and 2013 were identified. The series was randomly divided into a training and a validation set. A multivariable Cox model for OS was fitted to the training set. The beta coefficients derived from the Cox model were used to define a prognostic scoring system for OS. The survival stratification was then tested, and the prognostic scoring system was compared with the European Association for the Study of the Liver(EASL)/American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases(AASLD) surgical criteria by means of Harrell’s C statistics.RESULTS A total of 917 patients were considered. Five variables independently correlated with post-LR survival: Model for End-stage Liver Disease score, hepatitis C virus infection, number of nodules, largest diameter and vascular invasion. Three risk classes were identified, and OS for the three risk classes was significantly different both in the training(P < 0.0001) and the validation set(P = 0.0002). Overall, 69.4% of patients were in the low-risk class, whereas only 37.8% were eligible to surgery according to EASL/AASLD. Survival of patients in the low-risk class was not significantly different compared with surgical indication for EASL/AASLD guidelines(77.2 mo vs 82.5 mo respectively, P = 0.22). Comparison of Harrell’s C statistics revealed no significant difference in predictive power between the two systems(-0.00999, P = 0.667).CONCLUSION This study established a new prognostic scoring system that may stratify HCC patients suitable for surgery, expanding surgical eligibility with respect to EASL/AASLD criteria with no harm on survival.
Organ shortage is one of the major limitations in the field of liver transplantation, which has led to the consideration of extended criteria donors as a way to expand the donor pool. The use of ...extended criteria donors in cases of high Model for End-Stage Liver Disease scores or urgent recipients could be complicated by increased postoperative mortality. Donors on left ventricular assist devices could be considered extended criteria donors because of the mechanical circulatory support itself and the potential of chronic liver damage due to right ventricular failure, but experiences in the literature are limited. Here, we report the first case of an urgent liver retransplant procured from a left ventricular assist device donor.
The shortage of organs has pushed transplant surgeons to accept liver grafts with extended criteria, but severe vascular abnormalities may still discourage the use of otherwise acceptable organs. We ...report herein the case of a liver graft with a 64-mm aneurysm of the proper hepatic artery extended to the origin of the right and left hepatic branches. The graft was deemed unsuitable for transplant by all other centers in the region. However, liver function tests were normal, and there was no evidence of compromised arterial supply. At back table, we resected the aneurysm and anastomosed the right and left hepatic arteries to a vascular graft obtained from the distal tract of the donor's superior mesenteric artery. After portal reperfusion, we anastomosed the mesenteric graft to the recipient's hepatic artery at the origin of the gastroduodenal artery. The postoperative course and the subsequent 6-month follow-up were uneventful. In conclusion, the presence of a hepatic artery aneurysm should not be an absolute contraindication to the use of a liver graft. The present case emphasizes the possibility to utilize an organ that would have been otherwise discarded.
The place of liver transplantation in the treatment of severe iatrogenic liver injuries has not yet been widely discussed in the literature. Bile duct injuries during cholecystectomy represent the ...leading cause of liver transplantation in this setting, while other indications after abdominal surgery are less common. Urgent liver transplantation for the treatment of severe iatrogenic liver injury may-represent a surgical challenge requiring technically difficult and time consuming procedures. A debate is ongoing on the need for centralization of complex surgery in tertiary referral centers. The early referral of patients with severe iatrogenic liver injuries to a tertiary center with experienced hepato-pancreatobiliary and transplant surgery has emerged as the best treatment of care. Despite widespread interest in the use of liver transplantation as a treatment option for severe iatrogenic injuries, reported experiences indicate few liver transplants are performed. This review analyzes the literature on liver transplantation after hepatic injury and discusses our own experience along with surgical advances and future prospects in this uncommon transplant setting.
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