Surgical outcomes of minor hepatectomy for locally advanced gallbladder carcinoma.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: This study aimed to evaluate whether wedge resection or S4bS5 resection was the more beneficial hepatectomy procedure for patients with locally advanced gallbladder carcinoma.

METHODOLOGY: A retrospective analysis of 70 patients who underwent either wedge resection (n=58) or S4bS5 resection (n=12) for locally advanced gallbladder carcinoma without clinically evident liver metastases was conducted. Clinicopathological characteristics, histological features of hepatic invasion and surgical outcomes were analyzed.

RESULTS

Sixteen patients had tumors with hepatic invasion. Of the 16 patients with hepatic invasion, 6 had direct liver invasion alone and 10 had portal tract invasion featuring intrahepatic stromal invasion (n=5), intrahepatic lymphatic invasion (n=4) and intrahepatic venous invasion (n=l). The hepatectomy procedure was not significantly associated with survival after resection (p=0.518) as patients who underwent wedge resection showed an overall cumulative 3-year survival rate of 74% compared with 60% for patients who underwent S4bS5 resection. The Cox proportional hazard regression analysis revealed that pT classification (p<0.001), pM classification (p=0.001) and resection of the extrahepatic bile duct (p=0.048) were independently significant factors associated with survival after resection.

CONCLUSIONS

Hepatectomy procedure may not significantly affect surgical outcomes in patients with gallbladder carcinoma. Partial hepatectomy involving the gallbladder bed is critical due to possible tumor cells.