Hepatic resection is the treatment of choice for many secondary and primary
hepatic tumors. With improvement in surgical techniques and earlier recogn
ition of hepatic tumors, there has been a renewed interest in performing he
patic resections. In this operative review, we will describe the techniques
for performing right-sided and left-side hepatic resections. A major hepat
ic resection can be performed with less than 5% mortality and approximately
a 5% to 15% morbidity. Special mention will be made of performing a hepati
c resection without vascular inflow occlusion. This is necessary in perform
ing a hepatic resection for use in live donor liver transplantation.