Radiofrequency Ablation For The Treatment Of Liver Tumors With Cool-tip Needle (93 Cases Report)

Hepatocellular carcinoma and metastatic liver cancer are common malignancy, with characteristics of poor prognosis and rapid growth, and most of patients had cirrhosis background. More than 75%of patients due to tumor size, location and other reasons can not be preceeding radical surgical resection, approximately 10-30% hepatocellular carcinoma and metastatic liver cancer patients had the opportunity to get surgical treatment. For unresectable liver tumors, we can use percutaneous hepatic arterial embolization, microwave, radiofrequency ablation, and liver transplantation to treat, the radiofrequency ablation may be the one of methods of treatments, it can significantly prolong survival time and improve the overall survival for some patients. Radiofrequency ablation was regarded as a promising treatment for<5cm liver tumors. In this paper, we investigated the indication, morbidity, and survival of cool-tip needle RF for primary and secondary liver cancer patients in our hospital between 2006 and 2007.MethodsFrom January 2006 to December 2007,93 patients with primary and secondary liver cancers were treated with RF in our hospital. Complication (pains, nausea, trisient liver function damage, the temperature increase, pleural effusion, peumothorax), the relationship between survival time and tumor size, tumor location,1-year survival rate, and the completed ablation were investigated. All statistical analyses were performed using SPSS 16.0 Kaplan-Meier analysis.Results1 treatment outcome:92.47%(86/93) of patients were treated by B-ultrasonic or CT scan.7.53%(7/93) were treated in operation. The complete ablation rate of liver cancer was 89.06%(57/64),76.36%(42/55),33.33%(8/24) for patients with<3cm tumor size,3-5cm, >5cm, respectively.45 of them choosed RF because the mass can not be removed,34 of them abandoned surgical treatment due to severe cirrhosis of the liver.12 mass underwent RFA after 3 to 6 months for incompleted patients.2 Kaplan-Meier analysis:there has a linear negative correlation between tumor size and survival time.(P<0.01,Pearson correlation=-0.289). the patients used RFA in the right hepatic tumor had longest survival time.3 Complications:There were no intraoperative deaths, non-transit abdominal surgery, no postoperative bleeding of patients.5.89%(3/51)of patients was complicated with abdominal pain,3.92%(2/51) with nausea,45.1%(23/51) of them appeared a transient fever jaundice and bile leakage did not appear.ConclusionsThere has a linear negative correlation between tumor size and survival time, the patients used RFA in the right hepatic tumor had longest survival time. The cool-tip radiofrequency ablation in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma and metastatic liver cancer is safe, effective for patients with<5cm tumor size.