Background/purpose: Portal vein embolization (PVE) before hepatectomy is aimed to induce an atrophy of the embolized lobe to be resected, with a compensatory hypertrophy of the counterlobe to be preserved.
Methods: To answer the question "Is it useful?," we reviewed the clinical outcome in 161 patients undergoing major hepatectomy after PVE for various hepatobiliary tumors.
Results: All the patients tolerated PVE well, and hepatic functional data returned to the baseline levels within a week. The left liver volume increased by a median of 8% (range 2%-14%) after the right PVE. The 20 patients undergoing right hepatectomy for hepatocellular carcinoma had a mean indocyanine green retention rate at 15 min of 16% (SD 4%), and the 24 patients with liver metastases underwent right hepatectomy with additional left liver resection. Hepatectomy procedures comprised right or extended right hepatectomy (n=105), left or extended left hepatectomy (n=13), hepatopancreato duodenectomy (n=12), and less extensive hepatectomies (n=31). As a whole, the operative morbidity and mortality rates were 19% and 1.2%, respectively. Hepatopancreato duodenectomy carried no operative mortality. The cumulative 5-year survival rates were 44% in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and 60% in patients with metastatic tumor.
Conclusions: PVE is useful for performing extensive hepatectomy in patients with mild hepatic dysfunction, in those with bilobar tumors, or in those undergoing hepatopancreato duodenectomy.