Effectiveness of Lipiodol in transcatheter arterial embolization of hepatocellular carcinoma

The effectiveness of Lipiodol (iodized oil) in transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE) of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) was retrospectively evaluated using statistical analysis. A total of 343 HCC patients who underwent TAE at 5 institutions between 1984 and 1989 were divided into 2 groups: the GS-TAE group underwent TAE with Gelfoam sponge alone, whereas the LP-TAE group was given Lipiodol (LP) immediately before GS-TAE. The statisticalT value calculated for the LP-TAE group showed that the administration of LP, the tumor size, intrahepatic metastasis, portal vein infiltration, and serum total bilirubin and alpha-fetoprotein levels significantly (P<0.01) affected the patients' survival. Both the cumulative survival determined using the Kaplan-Meier model and the cumulative hazard calculated using Cox's proportional hazard model differed significantly (P<0.01) between the GS-TAE group and the LP-TAE group (log-rank test). These results confirmed the effectiveness of LP used in combination with Gelfoam sponge for TAE of HCC.