Extended bile duct resection--a new oncological approach to the treatment of central bile duct carcinomas? Description of method and early results.

Since the results of surgical resection and transplantation in the treatment of central bile duct carcinomas have been poor and neither radiotherapy nor chemotherapy has shown promising results, a new attempt to achieve curative resection has been made to combine liver transplantation with the Kausch-Whipple operation. With this operation the complete biliary system can be resected without touching the region of the hepatoduodenal ligament. Our intention is to avoid tumor cell spread by this "no-touch technique." Tumor cell spread is very likely to occur with the commonly used technique of close dissection near the centrally located carcinoma. In the seven patients operated on so far, we observed that the combination of total hepatectomy, partial duodenopancreatectomy and liver transplantation can be performed with fewer postoperative problems than "cluster transplantation" and probably has the same oncological benefit in terms of more radical resections at least for central biliary carcinomas. Theoretically, the radicalness of the resection should be greater than with liver transplantation or bile duct resection alone. Whether this concept helps to achieve better results in surgical treatment of early Klatskin tumors can only be evaluated after a longer follow-up. So far, six of seven patients have survived the operation without great problems and have been discharged from the hospital. The quality of life after this procedure seems to be better than with total pancreatic resection or even with replacement of the pancreas.