Hepatic cryosurgery in the treatment of unresectable metastases

The treatment of unresectable hepatic metastases has generally been limited to systemic or intra-arterial chemotherapy. Cryosurgery has the advantage of potentially ablating such unresectable tumours. From November 1987 to August 1994, 140 patients underwent 155 procedures using hepatic cryosurgery with and without resection for documented metastatic disease. Intra-operative ultrasound was used for monitoring the freezing zone. The tumours were frozen using liquid nitrogen cooled to -196 degrees C for 15 min. The median number of lesions treated was three. Median hospital stay was 10 days. The operative mortality was 4%. Complications included coagulopathy, hypothermia, myoglobinuria, pleural effusions, ATN and infection. The median survival for all patients was 22 months. Of those patients followed for more than 2 years, the median survival was 25 months. Of the 65 patients that are still alive, the median follow-up is 27 months.