Background/aim: Locally advanced liver tumours with vascular invasion have been considered for a long period of time as unresectable lesions, so the patient was further deferred to oncology services for palliation. However, improvement of the surgical techniques and the results reported so far came to demonstrate that extended hepatic and vascular resections might be safely performed in such cases and might significantly improve the long-term outcomes.
Materials and methods: A 61-year-old patient was diagnosed with a caudate lobe tumour invading the inferior cava vein and the right hepatic pedicle.
Results: The patient was successfully submitted to surgery, and an extended right hepatectomy en bloc with cava vein resection was performed; the continuity of the cava vein was re-established by the placement of a synthetic graft. The postoperative outcome was uneventful.
Conclusions: Although initially considered as a formal contraindication for resection, vascular invasion of the greater vessels should not preclude surgery if complete resection is achievable.
Keywords: caudate lobe; cava vein resection; hepatocarcinoma; major hepatectomy.