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Liver
Resection
Liver resection means removal of
a portion of the liver. It is the most common type
of surgery performed on liver. The most typical indication
for liver resection is a cancer of liver. Tumors (cancer)
can be
 primary
(developed in the liver)or
metastatic
(developed in another organ, then migrated to the
liver).
Metastasis to the liver comes mainly
from colon. The single tumor or more than one tumor
confined to either left or right side of the liver
can be successfully resected with 5-year survival
as high as 60
Surgeons doing liver resection for
tumor aims at completely removing the tumor and the
appropriate surrounding normal liver tissue without
leaving any tumor behind. This option is limited to
patients with one or two small (3cm or less) tumors
and excellent liver function, ideally without associated
cirrhosis. Unfortunately very few patients fit this
criteria and hence undergo liver resection. Moreover,
few patients with previously compromised liver functions
can develop liver failure. Even in carefully selected
patients, about 10% of them are expected to die shortly
after surgery, usually as a result of liver failure.
Therefore careful selection of the patients is very
important.
Another major indication for liver
resection is in benign tumors of the liver (cyst,
adenoma, hemangioma). can be successfully managed
by liver resection as well. The small superficial
tumors can be removed laparoscopically (by making
small punctures in the abdomen while viewing through
a video camera) reducing the large scars, longer hospital
stay and discomfort to the patient. But not all tumors
can be removed laparoscopically and surgeons opinion
regarding this hence becomes important.
And most noble indication of liver
resections is in people willing to donate part of
their liver to a loved one.
Liver resection may be performed 
laparoscopically,
using minimally invasive techniques,
using
open surgical methods.
The choice depends on a variety of
factors, such as the type of tumor and location, among
other things.
A liver resection takes approximately
4-5 hours. Though not always, but it can be performed
without blood transfusion. The hospital stay is about
5 days and complete recovery occurs in 5-6 weeks.
The resected liver regenerates to its preoperative
size in 6-8 weeks.
Excellent results from liver resections
are usually achieved.
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