Influence of portal branch ligation on the outcome of repeat dearterializations of an experimental liver tumor in the rat.

It has been suggested that the portal vein should be occluded during intermittent hepatic dearterialization in order to induce a more complete ischemia of the tumor. In this experiment the influence of portal branch ligation in combination with repeat dearterializations on a liver tumor was investigated. Twenty-seven rats were randomly allocated to sham treatment (n = 6); portal branch ligation (PBL) (n = 7); 120 min of repeat dearterialization (n = 7); and portal branch ligation (PBL) in combination with 50 min of repeat dearterialization (n = 7) (once a day during 5 days). The results showed that portal branch ligation alone did not alter the tumor growth compared with sham treatment (P > 0.05), nor did portal branch ligation in combination with repeat dearterializations for 50 min (P > 0.05). However, tumor growth delay was achieved following 120 min of repeat dearterializations without occlusion of the portal branch (P < 0.01 versus all the other groups). There was a significant weight loss of the lobe undergoing PBL, whether dearterialization was added or not (P < 0.001). The liver nucleotide/DNA and RNA/DNA ratio significantly decreased as well. Histological examination showed that > 50% of tumor cells became necrotic after repeat dearterializations for 2 hr indicating a significant damage to tumor tissue. In contrast, PBL in combination with repeat dearterializations for 50 min induced extensive liver necrosis without having any influence on tumor growth.