SURGICAL-TREATMENT OF HEPATOCELLULAR-CARCINOMA ORIGINATING FROM THE CAUDATE LOBE

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) originating from the caudate lobe is ra re, and its surgical management is difficult because of its unique ana tomic location. We have seen six such eases at our hospital, For patie nts with fair to excellent liver reserve, we advocated caudate lobecto my combining other types of hepatic resection, For patients with marke d liver cirrhosis and poor liver reserve or a small HCC, we advocated simple partial caudate lobectomy (limited hepatic resection), There wa s no operative mortality or major operative morbidity. We conclude tha t such approaches are safer. less time-consuming, and less technique-d emanding, and they produce a bir survival result compared with the app roaches of other procedures. With such approaches, it is our experienc e that patients with HCC from the caudate lobe have a prognosis compar able to that of patients with HCC in other parts of the liver.