Hepatic arterial redistribution for intraarterial infusion of hepatic neoplasms.

An aberrant hepatic artery occurs in approximately half of the population. With increased use of selective intraarterial chemotheraphy for hepatic neoplasms, an aberrant artery becomes a significant obstacle. Occlusion of the artery was attempted to redistribute the entire hepatic arterial flow from multiple arteries to a single artery to facilitate the effect of infusion. There were six hepatic artery variations found in the ten patients evaluated for this study. The aberrant left hepatic artery was embolized in five patients, and a replaced right hepatic artery was embolized in six; one patient had embolization of two hepatic arteries. The standard embolization method used Gelfoam and a coil to achieve proximal occlusion of the hepatic artery. Redistribution of hepatic flow through intrahepatic collaterals was achieved in all cases.