Percutaneous Ethanol Injection in the Treatment of Small Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Masatoshi Tanaka

Department of Medicine, Kurume University School of Medicine

We treated 375 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) by percutaneous ethanol injection, hepatic resection and transcatheter arterial embolization between January 1984 and June 1989, and followed up those patients until July 1994. Percutaneous ethanol injection, hepatic resection and transcatheter arterial embolization were independently introduced as initial treatment in 151, 63 and 168 patients with HCC, respectively. Among patients with HCC less than 20 mm in diameter with wellpreserved liver function, the survival rates after percutaneous ethanol injection and hepatic resection were 61% and 62% for 5-year survival, and 22% and 28% for 7-year survival. There was no significant difference in outcome. Among patients with HCC between 21 mm and 30 mm in diameter, however, those treated by percutaneous ethanol injection had a better outcome than those treated by transcatheter arterial embolization, but had a worse outcome than those who received hepatic resection. Investigation of patients who survived over 5 years led us to understand that early diagnosis of either a recurrence or a second new grough of HCC was an important prognostic factor after percutaneous ethanol injection.

Key words
percutaneous ethanol injection, small hepatocellular carcinoma, prognosis

Reprint requests
Masatoshi Tanaka Department of Medicine, Kurume University School of Medicine
67 Asahimachi, Kurume, 830 JAPAN

Accepted
June 14, 1995

To read the PDF file you will need Abobe Reader installed on your computer.