Laparoscopic liver resection for hepatocellular carcinoma in cirrhotic patients: 10-year single-center experience

Liver resection in cirrhotic patients reported to have higher morbidity and mortality rates compared to non-cirrhotic patients. Recently, there is increased acceptance of laparoscopic approach in liver surgery. However, few reports evaluated laparoscopic liver resection (LLR) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in cirrhotic patients. The aim of this study is to evaluate our experience of LLR for HCC and to compare perioperative and long-term outcomes between patients with and without liver cirrhosis (LC).

A retrospective analysis of 232 patients who underwent LLR for HCC between 2004 and 2013 was carried out. Patients were divided into two groups according to the pathological status of their liver parenchyma, in terms of presence or absence of LC.

LC group had 141 patients, and non-LC group had 91 patients. There were no statistically significant differences between both groups regarding operation time, blood loss, transfusion requirements, intraoperative complications, hospital stay, and postoperative complications. Long-term oncologic outcomes were comparable between both groups regarding the recurrence rates (p = 0.067), overall survival (OS) rates (p = 0.908), and disease-free survival (DFS) rates (p = 0.197). The 1-, 3-, 5-, and 7-year OS were 91.7, 85.5, 79.4, and 70.1% in LC group, and 93.9, 86, 79.5, and 72.3% in non-LC group. The 1-, 3-,5-, and 7-year DFS were 75.3, 52.4, 42.6, and 32.7% in LC group, and 74.1, 57.6, 55.3, 50.2% in non-LC group.

LLR for HCC is feasible in patients with LC. Cirrhotic patients showed comparable perioperative and long-term outcomes to non-cirrhotic patients.