[Hepatic resections]

Liver resection are now accepted as a part of the surgical therapeutic armamentarium. In this review the anatomical and technical aspects, as well as the main indications, are discussed. The new image technique have largely contributed to the early detection of lesions that can be resected. The main indication for these procedures are malignant lesions (primary or metastatic) as well as symptomatic benign lesions. The importance to study, diagnose and treat benign lesions are justified by the possibility to detect and resect a potentially curable malignant disease. Major liver resections are contraindicated in patients with liver cirrhosis, because of a high morbimortality. Operative mortality for major liver resection is about 10% in most centers and the survival of patients with malignant disease treated by this modality is better than that of the patients treated with conservative measures. All patients with space-occupying lesions of the liver deserve the benefit of the doubt to be considered for surgical treatment. The individual features of each patient, with a judicious balance between risk and benefit, indicate or contraindicate these procedures.