Background: Preoperative selective portal vein embolization (PSPVE), usually of the right portal branch, allows some patients to undergo an hepatectomy which was initially impossible as it would have left an insufficient amount of liver parenchyma. PSPVE induces relative atrophy of the embolized part of the liver, inducing compensatory hypertrophy of the nonembolized part (future remaining liver). Its technical aspects, its tolerance, its immediate results and indications are currently well-known, but long-term results of PSPVE followed by hepatectomy are unknown. The objective of this retrospective study was to assess the long-term survival of this unusual therapeutic approach.
Patients and methods: Forty-one patients with initially unresectable (for volumetric reasons) malignant lesions of the liver, underwent PSPVE followed by hepatectomy between September 1987 and September 1998. In two-thirds of cases, the primary tumor was a colorectal adenocarcinoma. The mean number of resected lesions was 4.6 per patient, the mean size of the free margin was 4.3 mm, and 26.8% of the patients presented a (resectable) extrahepatic tumor.
Results: Overall 5-year survival (including the two postoperative deaths) was 31.3%, and 5-year survival without recurrence was 24%. For the 27 patients with colorectal metastases (the only homogenous subgroup of the series), overall 5-year survival was 28.6%. Although this result was lower than those obtained with classical hepatectomy (34.4%), it can be considered to be satisfactory, due to the number and size of the lesions.
Conclusion: In conclusion, it is justified to use PSPVE to make initially unresectable very large liver tumors resectable, in view of the good survival results.