Abstract:
Objective To explore the clinical efficacy of salvage liver transplantation(SLT) for hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence after hepatocellular carcinoma resection.
Methods Clinical data of 68 patients who underwent liver transplantation treating for hepatocellular carcinoma from April 2005 to December 2012 in the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University were analyzed retrospectively. Among them, 60 patients underwent primary liver transplantation(PLT, PLT group), and 8 patients underwent SLT for recurrence (SLT group). Intraoperative situation was compared between two groups including operation time, time of anhepatic phase, volume of blood loss and blood transfusion. Time in intensive care unit(ICU) and total length of hospital stay were compared between two groups. The occurrence of postoperative complication was compared between two groups. And the survival curves were drawn by the Kaplan-Meier method according to the follow-up result between two groups. Cumulative survival rate and tumor free survival rate were compared by log-rank tests between two groups.
Results The operation time, anhepatic time, volume of blood loss and blood transfusion of patients in SLT group were higher than those in PLT group(all in P<0.05). There was no significant difference in the time in ICU and total length of hospital stay between two groups(all in P>0.05). There was no significant difference in the occurrence of bleeding, infection, acute rejection, renal failure and biliary complication between two groups(all in P>0.05). All the patients were followed up for 1-90 months with the average of 33 months. The cumulative survival rates of 1, 2 and 3 years were 87.5%, 75.0%, 62.5% in SLT group and 80.0%, 73.8%, 67.8% in PLT group respectively, and there was no significant difference by Kaplan-Meier analysis between two groups(P>0.05). And the tumor free survival rates of 1, 2 and 3 years were 75.0%, 62.5%, 50.0% in SLT group and 81.2%、68.6%、64.6% in PLT group, and there was no significant difference by Kaplan-Meier analysis between two groups either(P>0.05).
Conclusions SLT has a good curative effect on the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence after hepatocellular carcinoma resection. In the era of organ shortage,SLT is a effective treatment strategy.