Treatment of hepatic neoplasm through extrahepatic collaterals

Twenty-nine patients with hepatic artery occlusion were treated with additional hepatic infusion or embolization through extrahepatic collaterals. Seventeen courses of hepatic infusion were performed in 13 patients through the inferior pancreaticoduodenal artery, left gastric artery, or right gastric artery. Twenty-five hepatic embolization procedures were performed in 16 patients through the right and left phrenic arteries, left and right gastric arteries, pancreaticoduodenal artery, gastroduodenal artery, or omentoepiploic artery. In one patient gastric ulcers developed following left gastric artery infusion. No complication related to the embolization procedure was observed in the embolization group. The extrahepatic collaterals are important alternative routes for continuous transcatheter management of hepatic neoplasms following hepatic artery occlusion.