Isolated caudate lobe resection for huge hepatocellular carcinoma (10 cm or greater in diameter)

Isolated caudate lobectomy for huge hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) (10 cm or greater in diameter) is a technically demanding surgical procedure that entails the surgeon's experience and precise anatomical knowledge of the liver. We describe our clinical experiences and evaluate the results of partial or total isolated caudate lobectomy for HCC larger than 10 cm in the caudate lobe. En bloc excisions combined with adjacent hepatic parenchyma (as part of extended hepatectomies) were excluded. Twenty-seven patients were included in the study (24 male, three3 female). Median age was 43 years (range, 18 to 81 years). All primary diagnoses were HCC. Twenty-one patients had surgical margins lesser than 1 cm. Tumor embolus within the main trunk of the portal vein was found in five patients by intraoperative ultrasound. Median operative time was 288 minutes (range, 160 to 310 minutes), and estimated intraoperative blood loss was 2260 mL (range, 200 to 7000 mL). Median blood transfusion was 1460 mL (range, 0 to 7200 mL). Postoperative morbidity rate was 44.4 per cent. There were no postoperative deaths. Overall survival rates at 1, 3, and 5 years were 80.2, 52.1, and 27.1 per cent, respectively. Nineteen patients (70.4%) had tumor recurrence as of the last follow-up. The recurrence lesion was treated in most of these patients. Isolated caudate lobectomy for huge HCC is a technically demanding but safe procedure, although the procedure is sometimes extremely difficult.