Hepatic resection with and without surgical margins for hepatocellular carcinoma in patients with impaired liver function.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The significance of a surgical margin for hepatic resection of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in patients with impaired liver function was evaluated. METHODOLOGY: Sixty-eight patients, each with a solitary HCC, who had not received any prior treatments were divided into 2 groups, according to surgical margin: Group A included 25 patients who underwent resection with no margin (although the tumor was not exposed) and Group B included 43 patients with a sufficient surgical margin (mean distance: 9mm). There were no significant differences in clinicopathologic variables between the 2 groups. The rate of stump recurrence, survival and recurrence-free survival were analyzed. RESULTS: Among the 38 patients who had cancer recurrence after a median follow-up of 58 months, 9 (Group A, n=4; Group B, n=5) (24%) had recurrent lesions at the stump. The surgical margin was not a significant factor related to survival or recurrence, irrespective of cirrhosis, capsule formation, cancer spread, or tumor size. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicated that the HCC-free surgical margin is unlikely to be related to the survival of patients with impaired liver function unless the tumor is exposed on the raw liver surface.