[Treatment of minor hepatic tumors with ultrasonically guided percutaneous injection of absolute alcohol. Results in 8 patients].

The effectiveness of ultrasonically guided percutaneous ethanol injection therapy was investigated in 8 patients who had hepatocellular carcinoma (two cases), hepatic metastases from colorectal carcinoma (five cases) and hepatic metastasis from breast carcinoma (one case). Tumor diameter was less than 5 cm in all cases. Fifty-nine ethanol injection were performed for 11 lesions. Histopathologic examination, performed in all cases, showed that the tumor was completely necrotic in 4 cases, partially necrotic in 3 cases and unchanged in 4 cases. Serum alphafetoprotein and carcinoembryogenic antigen decreased in 5 out of 8 cases. Seven patients were still alive at the end of the study with a mean follow-up period of 10.7 months. We conclude that ethanol injection may be a valuable treatment for small hepatic tumors.