Appraisal of hepatic resection in the treatment of minute hepatocellular carcinoma associated with liver cirrhosis.

During the last 6 years, 205 patients with primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) were admitted to our surgical departments. Thirty-eight had HCC smaller than 3 cm in diameter. There were 34 men and 4 women with an average age of 56.5 years. All patients had underlying hepatic disease: liver cirrhosis in 35 patients and chronic active hepatitis with fibrosis in the remaining 3. Pre-operative complications included: oesophageal varices in ten, cholelithiasis in five, peptic ulcer in two, gastric cancer in one, and severe hypersplenism in one instance. A radical resection was performed in 32 cases and palliative resection in 6. Simultaneous operations were carried out for the above mentioned associated conditions: distal splenorenal shunt in six, Hassab's devascularization procedure in one, splenectomy in one, cholecystectomy in four, cholecystolithotomy in one, and partial gastrectomy in one. Four patients had postoperative complications: liver failure, rebleeding, right haemothorax, and upper gastrointestinal bleeding from acute mucosal lesion of the stomach. One patient with liver failure died in coma within 1 month. The operative and in-hospital mortality rates were 2.6 and 7.9 per cent, respectively. Survival rates during the first 4 years in 32 patients with radical hepatic resection were 89.9, 67.2, 58.8, and 58.8 per cent, respectively. We suggest that hepatic resection should be the first choice of treatment for minute HCC even in the presence of liver cirrhosis.