Background and objectives: Assessment of liver function is paramount before hepatectomy. This study aimed to assess future liver remnant function (FLR-F) using hepatobiliary scintigraphy (HBS) and to compare it to FLR volume (FLR-V) in the prediction of posthepatectomy liver failure (PHLF). The impact of volume and function gains were also assessed in patients undergoing portal vein embolization (PVE) or liver venous deprivation (LVD).
Methods: All consecutive patients undergoing major hepatectomy between 02/2018 and 09/2021 with preoperative HBS were included. FLR-V was expressed as percentage of total liver volume and analyzed using preoperative computed tomography. FLR-V and FLR-F gains after embolization were expressed in percentage. Receiver operating characteristic analysis was performed to compare both methods in predicting PHLF.
Results: Thirty-six patients were included. PVE and LVD were performed in 4 (11%) and 28 patients (78%), respectively. Overall, PHLF occurred in eight patients (22%). FLR-F gain after embolization showed significant ability to predict PHLF (area under the curve [AUC] = 0.789), with cut-off value of 150% showing a sensitivity of 1.00, a specificity of 0.42, and a negative predictive value of 1.00.
Conclusion: Preoperative HBS shows a high sensitivity to predict PHLF when HBS is performed twice to measure the function gain after venous embolization.
Keywords: hepatectomy; hepatobiliary scintigraphy; liver failure; liver function test.
© 2023 The Authors. Journal of Surgical Oncology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.