[Liver tumor ablation]

Minimal-invasive techniques for ablation of primary and secondary hepatic tumors gain increasingly clinical importance. This is especially true since surgical resection and classic chemotherapy is successful only in a limited number of patients. Local ablative methods incorporate chemo- (percutaneous alcohol instillation, transarterial chemoembolization), thermo- (radiofrequency-, laser-, microwave-, cryoablation, high intensive focused ultrasound) and radio-ablative techniques (interstitial brachytherapy, selective internal radiotherapy). Regarding their implementation and specific effects these methods are varying widely, nevertheless all of them have a high therapeutical efficacy together with a low complication rate in common-correct application presumed. The knowledge on specific indications and contraindications is crucial to implement these methods into multimodality therapy concepts.