The treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma should be both the most radical to obtain the best outcome and to reduce the recurrence's rate, and the most suitable according to the patient's condition, lesion's characteristics and underlying liver disease: because of the large number of factors affecting the outcome of Hcc, unfortunately, we are still far from an agreement upon a group of criteria useful to select the best candidates for liver resection.
Surgery-related morbidity has been identified as prognostic risk factor for tumor recurrence for several tumor types, but data regarding hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are limited and controversial. The aim of this study was to analyze the impact of surgical complications on the risk of HCC recurrence after hepatic resection (HR). A Retrospective study was conducted on a cohort of patients submitted to HR in a tertiary teaching hospital, between January 2006 and December 2015. 112 patients were submitted to HR during the study period. Cirrhosis was present in 84% of cases, with portal hypertension in 19.6%. The median MELD score was 8 (range 6-15). The median number of lesions per patient was 1 (range 1-5) with a mean diameter of 5.4 ± 3.8 cm. Major HR were performed in 18.2% of cases. Overall post-op morbidity was 48.2% with Clavien-Dindo (CD) severity score ≥3 in 15.2% of cases. The most frequent complications were infected biloma (19.6%) and liver failure (14%). HCC recurred in 48% of patients. At univariate analysis overall post-op complications (HR 2.313, p = 0.003), CD score >2 (HR 2.075, p = 0.047), post-op liver failure (HR 2.990, p = 0.007), post-op iperbilirubinemia (HR 1.151, p = 0.049), post-op bleeding (HR 2.633, p < 0.001) and infected biloma (HR 2.696, p = 0.001) were risk factors for HCC recurrence. At multivariate analysis post-op liver failure (HR 4.081, p < 0.0001) and infected biloma (HR 2.971, p < 0.0001) maintained statistical significance for HCC recurrence. Thus Major surgical complications after HR, especially post-op liver failure and infected biloma are risk factors for HCC recurrence.
Well into the 25th year of the HIV pandemics, and into the 15th year of the highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) era, liver transplantation (LT) in the HIV population might be viewed as both a problem and an opportunity. It is still a problem when we consider that only a small proportion of all HIV-infected patients with end stage liver disease (ESLD) will have access to this precious and limited resource. But, in the face of the continuous HAART refinements, that will probably expand in the future the pool of potential HIV- organ recipients, LT is also an opportunity. Considering the poor results observed in a subset of HIV/HCV coinfected patients with an ESLD in comparison to HCV monoinfected ones, LT is still a problem. But it is an opportunity if large and well designed clinical trials will reveal favourable prognostic factors associated to the subset of HIV/HCV coinfected patients that may undergo LT with satisfactory results. Available data presently support with good evidence the practice of LT in HIV population. Thus, the issue is no longer "whether it is correct to transplant HIV-infected patients", but "who are the patients that can be safely transplanted" and "when is the most correct timing to perform the surgical procedure". Indeed, the benefits of LT in HIV-infected patients, especially in terms of mid- and long-term patient and graft survival, are strictly related to patient selection and correct timing for transplantation. Aim of this article is to review some of the issues concerning HIV infection and LT, particularly with regard the opportunity of LT option in HIV setting and the most appropriate evaluation of an HIV-infected candidate for LT.
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