To Pringle or not to pringle: is Pedicle clamping a necessity in liver resection?

A single center prospective study was done to evaluate the role of hepatic portal pedicle clamping (PC) during right hepatectomy (RH) in patients with primary and secondary liver tumors. Cirrhotics were excluded. Two groups were compared for preoperative demographics including diagnosis, tumor size, portal vein embolization and liver enzymes, pre and postoperative hemoglobin levels, percentage of residual liver mass, morbidity and mortality, pedicle clamp time, intensive care unit stay, length of hospital stay and blood loss. We observed no significant difference in the analysis of the post-operative hemoglobin, liver enzymes, residual liver size, size of tumor resected, need for postoperative monitoring in ICU stay, length of hospital stay and blood loss. Mortality and morbidity were the same. None of the patients were transfused during surgery. Our findings show that pedicle clamping was beneficial 15% of the time when uncontrolled intra-operative bleeding was encountered or in a subset of patients with peliosis, steatohepatitis, Jehovah Witness patient, and post-chemotherapy patients. However, its advantage has to be weighed against the disadvantages.