Laparoscopic hepatectomy for the treatment of hepatic alveolar echinococcosis

At present, laparoscopy is relatively mature as a minimally invasive technique, but there are few reports on this approach for the radical treatment of hepatic alveolar echinococcosis (AE). In this study, we aimed to evaluate the safety and feasibility of laparoscopic hepatectomy (LH) for AE treatment.

A retrospective review of medical records obtained from 13 patients diagnosed with AE between January 2018 and December 2019 and treated with laparoscopic hepatectomy was conducted at the First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University. All patients (n = 13) underwent hepatic resection using laparoscopy and none were transferred to open surgery. The average duration of surgery was 285 min (145-580 min). Intraoperative bleeding was 305 mL (20-2000 mL). The mean duration of postoperative catheterization was 6.9 days (3-21 days), and postoperative hospital stay was 7.2 days (4-14 days). No complication of Clavien-Dindo grade III or above occurred, except for the second patient with acute liver failure post-surgically. No recurrences or deaths were observed at 9-30 months of follow-up.

Laparoscopic hepatectomy appears to be safe and effective in selected AE patients. The advantages of this technique for AE treatment need to be further compared with the classical open approach.