Background: Due to their size or location liver tumors can infiltrate important vascular structures, which are essential for postoperative liver function.
Objective: To present the technical possibilities and results of current concepts of vascular resection and reconstruction in liver surgery.
Material and methods: A literature search of the Medline and Cochrane databases was performed regarding currently available studies on vascular resection and reconstruction in liver surgery.
Results: Portal vein resections are routinely performed by many institutions and can be performed as an end-to-end anastomosis or graft interposition. This is the basis of the en bloc resection concept, especially for Klatskin tumors. Reconstruction of the inferior vena cava as well as the hepatic arteries is technically feasible and is increasingly being reported in smaller series. In particular, the resection of tumors near the hepatic veins may require total vascular exclusion for complete interruption of liver perfusion, which enables resection in the non-perfused liver and by this reduced blood loss. Furthermore, in situ cooling, ante situm and ex situ resections increase both technical resectability and the ischemic tolerance of the liver to more than 60 min. The majority of vascular reconstructions can be performed without a significant increase in morbidity; however, vascular tumor infiltration is associated with impaired long-term survival.
Conclusion: Based on the experience of transplantation surgery concepts for vascular reconstruction can be safely applied to liver surgery. These concepts contribute to increasing the resectability of liver tumors. Due to the often impaired prognosis of vascular tumor infiltration, the use of these concepts should be individually assessed by weighing the prognosis against the morbidity.
Keywords: Ante situ resection; Ex situ resection; In situ cooling; Portal vein reconstruction; Vascular resection.