Assortment of posthepatectomy hyperbilirubinemia by the occurring time with reference to indication of plasma...

This study was undertaken to assort the group of posthepatectomy hyperbilirubinemia by occurring time for helping elucidate its indication of plasma exchange (PE). PE was carried out for 14 cases among 198 hepatectomized patients. The 14 cases were classified for 3 groups due to the period between operation and PE. 1: Early type (less than 2 weeks), 2:Intermediate type (2 less than-less than 8 weeks), 3: Late type (greater than 8 weeks). The results were as follows. Number (liver cirrhosis (LC)) [table: see text]. The effect was expected for the early groups since PE would remove overload against the regenerating residual liver. However, there were no survival cases among the early group or LC group. These results suggest that PE may be effective for the slowly increasing hyperbilirubinemia in not cirrhotic patients and that the state of hyperbilirubinemia is the terminal stage for LC patients even under the particular situation such as posthepatectomy.