MALIGNANT HEPATIC-TUMORS - SAFETY OF HIGH-DOSE PERCUTANEOUS ETHANOL ABLATION THERAPY

The authors retrospectively analyzed clinical records to determine the safety and complication rate of percutaneous ethanol ablation therapy with more than 10 mL of ethanol administered per session for treatmen t of malignant hepatic tumors. Ten patients underwent a total of 35 se ssions with 10 mL or more of ethanol, and four underwent 18 sessions w ith 10 mL or less. No serious complications occurred with any dose. Pa in and fever were the most common complications at all doses, and the higher frequency of these at larger ethanol volumes may be related to the greater degree of tumor necrosis induced by the larger volume.