Histologic changes seen in the hepatic parenchyma and in metastatic nodules following hepatic dearterialization.

Hepatic dearterialization was performed on four patients in an attempt to provide symptomatic relief from metastic carcinoma in the liver. Interruption of hepatic arterial blood supply causes necrosis in larger metastatic tumor deposits, but very small nodules are unaffected by the procedure; this observation supports experimental studies on tumor angiogenesis factor. Interruption of hepatic arterial blood supply results in nonspecific ischemic changes to the hepatic parenchyma, which responds with small nests of regenerating liver cells. This finding appears to support the work of Plengvanit on revascularization of the liver after hepatic artery ligation.