Surgical treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma and concomitant esophagogastric varices.

Preventing a rupture of esophagogastric varices (EGV) is very important in aggressively treating hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in cirrhotic patients. We therefore performed simultaneous partial hepatic resection and direct interruption procedure on nine patients with HCC and concomitant EGV. Patients were selected on the basis of their stages of HCC and hepatic functional reserve. Postoperative hospital courses of all patients were uneventful. Six patients had recurrence of HCC and received non-surgical anti-tumor treatments. Only one patient had upper gastrointestinal bleeding at 18 months after operation, and the other eight patients have had no episodes of upper gastrointestinal bleeding during the follow-up period. The 5-year survival rate of these patients was 48%. This operative procedure is quite effective and is one of the treatments of choice for patients with less advanced HCC and concomitant risk of EGV.