Background/aims: Recently, mortality following surgical resection for hepatocellular carcinoma has been reduced significantly. Morbidity, however, is still significant. This study evaluated the risk factors leading to morbidity and mortality.
Methods: 510 patients who had a hepatic resection form Nov. 1994 to Dec. 2001 were included. The patient demographics showed a mean age of 51.6 years with a male to female ratio of 4:1. The HBsAg was positive in 76.0% and the anti-HCV was positive in 8.2%. The mean tumor size was 5.2 cm, 26.2% of patients had preoperative transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE), and 8.7% had preoperative percutaneous transhepatic portal embolization (PTPE). Limited resection was performed in 259 cases (50.7%), and major resection was conducted in 251 cases (49.1%). Risk factors included age, sex, laboratory findings (liver function test, prothrombin time, albumin, glucose, alpha-fetoprotein, ICG test), preoperative TAE, PTPE, operation type, operation time, intraoperative transfusion, tumor size, and cirrhosis.
Results: The morbidity was 10.5% (54 cases). Operative death occurred in 5 cases (1.0%). Hospital death, including operative death, occurred in 6 cases (1.2%). Five cases were associated with hepatic failure and 1 case was associated with aspiration pneumonia accompanying hepatic failure. Transfusion (P=0.002), glucose (P=0.002), and prothrombin time (P=0.038) were significantly related to morbidity. Age (P=0.028), glucose (P=0.011), and TAE (P=0.046) were significantly related to mortality.
Conclusions: Intraoperative transfusion, which is mainly related to intraoperative bleeding, should be reduced if possible to decrease morbidity. Diabetes mellitus patients and the elderly need careful perioperative management.