Purpose: To evaluate the therapeutic effect and safety of pingyangmycin-lipiodol emulsion (PLE) intra-arterial embolization for treating gigantic cavernous hemangioma of the liver (CHL).
Methods: Three hospitals (Nanfang Hospital, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region's Hospital and Huai He Hospital) participated in the study during 1997-2001. A total of 98 patients with CHL were embolized with PLE via the hepatic artery. The therapeutic effects including changes in tumor diameter, symptomatic improvement and occurrence of complications were evaluated for a period of 12 months after the procedure.
Results: The tumor diameters decreased significantly from 9.7 +/- 2.3 cm to 5.6 +/- 1.6 cm 6 months after the treatment ( P < 0.01), and then to 3.0 +/- 1.2 cm at 12 months ( P < 0.01). Transient impairment of liver function was found in 77 cases after embolization, 69 cases of which returned to normal in 2 weeks, and the other eight cases of which recovered 1 month later. The clinical symptoms were significantly relieved in all 53 symptomatic patients. Persistent pain in the hepatic region was found in two cases, and these two patients resorted to surgery eventually.
Conclusion: Intra-arterial PLE embolization proves to be effective and safe in treating patients with CHL.