[The rationale in surgery of hepatic echinococcosis: total pericystectomy and resections. Personal experience]

The Authors report their fifteen years experience in the surgical treatment of hepatic hydatid cysts. They emphasize the difference in the incidence of radical procedures (pericystectomy and hepatic resections) registered in the two periods examined (1980-83 and 1987-93), stressing the role of current diagnostic imaging techniques and improved surgical procedures which allow to perform standard operations for a radical treatment of hepatic hydatid cysts. Total pericystectomy is considered the procedure of choice; rarely it can't be performed (high vascular risk in central cysts located between portal and hepatic veins) and consequently subtotal pericystectomy or conservative treatment are the only possible procedures. Hepatic resection is preferred in case of multiple cysts involving the same lobe or when a giant hydatid cyst replaces the lobe. A further therapeutical resource--in radical procedures--is offered by the use of antihelminth drugs with marked antiparasitic action (albendazole).