Background: Extended liver resections still bear the risk of severe haemorrhage. Moreover, the amount of blood loss during liver resection determines the need for perioperative blood transfusions and is of prognostic relevance in oncologic surgery. Even though there is an ongoing debate about its effectiveness and tolerable duration, the Pringle Maneuver (PM) as an occlusion of the hepatic inflow is routinely applied to reduce blood loss during parenchymal dissection. In combination with the stapler resection technique, PM is expected to minimize blood loss during major liver resection safely due to the short parenchymal dissection duration.
Methods: In a single center prospective, randomized, controlled, parallel, confirmatory trial the combination of PM and stapler resection technique in patients undergoing right and left hepatectomies will be tested against the control group that applies stapler resection without the use of PM. The primary endpoint of the study is the total intraoperative blood loss. The measurement of the intraoperative blood loss is conducted with respect to all handled rinse fluids during surgery and by weighing used swabs to generate accurate and comparable data. Secondary endpoints include intra- and postoperative blood transfusion requirements, liver function parameters and the 90-day mortality rate. A sample size of fifty-three patients in either group was calculated to detect a clinically significant difference in blood loss of at least 450 ml with an α of 5% at 80% power. The individual follow-up will be 90 days.
Discussion: This is the first clinical trial to test the combination of PM and stapler resection technique as a means to reduce intraoperative blood loss in hepatic left or right resection. Given the short parenchymal dissection duration in stapler resection, PM is expected to be applied shortly without compromising liver function postoperatively.
Trial registration: The PriMaL StHep trial has been prospectively registered to the German Clinical Trial Registry (WHO ID: DRKS00010427 ) on April 21st. 2016.
Keywords: Blood loss; Liver resection; Pringle maneuver.