A Comparison of Pitfalls after ALPPS Stage 1 or Portal Vein Embolization in Small-for-Size Setting Hepatectomies

Portal vein embolization (PVE) followed by resection and associating liver partition and portal vein ligation for staged hepatectomy (ALPPS) are tools to enable liver resections in small-for-size settings.

A systematic review of the literature and comparison of pitfalls between PVE and resection and after ALPPS stage 1 were performed.

Evidence levels were as low as 4 for both procedures. 20 publications were identified with reports on post-PVE or post-ALPPS stage 1 pitfalls. A total of 2,758 patients treated with PVE followed by resection and 698 patients undergoing ALPPS were analyzed. Pitfalls identified were failure to advance to resection (PVE: high (20%)/ALPPS: low (1%); p = 0.0001), tumor progression (PVE: high/ALPPS: low); insufficient hypertrophy (PVE: frequent/ALPPS: rare), and inter-stage liver failure (PVE: rare/ALPPS: frequent). However, in-house mortality was still very high after ALPPS (7 vs. 3%, p = 0.0001) in a pooled analysis.

PVE is a well-established technique to induce hypertrophy in small-for-size settings. The weakness of PVE is that it may fail to advance to resection. Inter-stage liver failure in ALPPS triggers post-stage 2 mortality. Prolongation of the inter-stage interval to overcome liver failure or cancellation of the resection stage combined with adherence to defined indications has the potential to make ALPPS much safer and decrease mortality rates. Level of evidence is low for both techniques.