General versus local anesthesia for percutaneous radiofrequency ablation of hepatocellular carcinoma at unusual regions.

AIMS: The aim of this study is to compare the efficacy and safety of percutaneous radiofrequency ablation (RFA) under general anesthesia or local anesthesia plus intraoperative analgesia in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) at unusual regions.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS: From July 2012 to October 2019, 83 consecutive patients with 107 HCC lesions were treated with interventional radiology therapy. The lesions were located at some unusual regions such as diaphragmatic surface, hepatic hilum, hepatic subcapsular region, tissues near inferior vena cava, and tissues near the colon. General anesthesia was applied in 57 cases (general anesthesia group) and local anesthesia plus intraoperative analgesia was used in 26 cases (local anesthesia group). All patients were treated with transcatheter arterial chemoembolization, followed immediately by RFA. The rate of tumor inactivation, time used for placing RF needles to the scheduled sites, pain score, and complications were analyzed.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: All continuous variables were tested for the normal/nonnormal distribution by Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. The t-test was used to analyze the normal distribution variables; the Mann-Whitney U-test was used to measure nonnormal distribution variables; and the Chi-square test for categorical variables. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

RESULTS: The treatments were successful in all patients, including 51 cases of complete response (CR) and 6 cases of partial response (PR) in the general anesthesia group and 18 cases of CR and 8 cases of PR in the local anesthesia group (P = 0.049). The time used for placing the needles to the scheduled sites was 1-5 min (mean 2 min) in the general anesthesia group and 2-9 min (mean 4 min) in the local analgesia group (P < 0.001). The pain scores ranged from 0 to 2 points (mean 1 point) in the general anesthesia group and 2-9 points (mean 5 points) in the local anesthesia group (P < 0.001). With regard to complications, seven cases had pneumothorax and four cases had slight hepatic subcapsular hemorrhage in the general anesthesia group and four cases of pneumothorax and three cases of slight hepatic subcapsular hemorrhage in the local anesthesia group, and the difference was not statistically significant between the two groups (P = 0.715).

CONCLUSIONS: For HCC located at unusual regions, general anesthesia is superior to local anesthesia plus intraoperative analgesia in percutaneous RFA in reducing the difficulty of the procedure and improving the safety of RFA.