Minor versus major hepatic resection for small hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in cirrhotic patients: A 20-year experience

BackgroundThe choice between minor versus major resection or anatomic versus nonantatomic resection for small (<5 cm) solitary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in patients with cirrhosis is controversial. The aim of our study was to evaluate the long-term disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) after minor or major hepatic resection for small solitary HCC in cirrhotic patients.MethodsBetween January 1983 and December 2002, patients with solitary HCC of ≤5 cm in size who had histologically proven liver cirrhosis and microscopically tumor-free margin were included. These selected patients underwent either minor (≤2 segments) or major (≥3 segments) hepatectomy.ResultsIn 373 patients, 259 underwent minor and 114 underwent major hepatectomy. Patients in the minor resection group had more severe underlying liver disease (P = .005). Therefore, only 29.3% received anatomic resection in the minor resection group in comparison with 72.8% in the major hepatectomy group (P = .0001). No difference was found in postoperative morbidity (P = .105), mortality (P =.222), intrahepatic recurrence (P = .742), and 5-year DFS and OS (31.6% vs 31.8%, P = .932 and 50.7% vs 44.0%, P = .114) in both groups. The type of operative resection was not found to be a significant factor affecting survival in univariate analysis, but the preoperative liver function (alanine aminotransferase [AST] or alanine aminotransferase [ALT], serum albumin, or Child-Pugh status), tumor characteristics (alpha-feto protein, size, and presence of daughter nodules), and blood transfusion were found to be independent factors that affect the DFS and OS in a multivariate analysis.ConclusionThe severity of cirrhosis and tumor characteristics depicts long-term survival rather than the type of resection in HCC.