Aggressive surgical approaches to hilar cholangiocarcinoma: hepatic or local resection?

It has been reported that surgical excision of hilar cholangiocarcinoma rather than palliative surgical therapy, chemotherapy, or radiotherapy caused prolonged survival in some patients, However, excision is associated with high operative morbidity and mortality rates, particularly when hepatic resection is also performed. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical implications of hepatic resection in hilar cholangiocarcinoma.

The study involved 76 patients with hilar cholangiocarcinoma who were undergoing surgical resections. Twenty-one patients (28%) underwent a combined resection, with reconstruction of the portal vein in 20 patients and reconstruction of the hepatic artery in 7 patients. Sixty-five patients undergoing seven different types of hepatic resection with extrahepatic bile duct resection (BDR) and 11 patients undergoing BDR only were retrospectively compared for background, operative morbidity and mortality, and survival.

Curative resection was obtained in 5 of 11 (45%) patients undergoing local resection and in 49 of 65 (75%) patients undergoing hepatic resection (p < 0.05). The surgical morbidity rates were 34% and 27% for hepatic and local resection, respectively. The 30-day mortality and hospital mortality rates were 4.6% and 15% for hepatic resection and 0% and 0% for local resection, respectively. The 5-year survival rate was 26% for all resected patients (76 patients); it was 40% versus 0% for curative versus noncurative resections (p < 0.05). No significant difference in surgical resection rates was revealed between hepatic and local resection among resected and curative resected patients.

Aggressive surgical approaches to obtain curative resections could bring about a better prognosis in hilar cholangiocarcinoma independently of whether hepatic resection or local resection is performed.