Laparoscopic hepatectomy: indications and results from 18 resectable cases

Objective: To evaluate the early and late results from laparoscopichepatectomy procedures at a tertiary hospital in Brasília (DF), Brazil. Methods: The authors report on a series of 18 patients (11 women) who underwent laparoscopic hepatectomy performed by a single surgical team at Santa Lúcia Hospital, in Brasília, between June 2007 and December 2010. Age ranged from 21 to 71 years (median = 43 years).There were eleven women and seven men. Nine patients had benigndiseases and nine had malignant lesions. The lesion diameter rangedfrom 1.8 to 12 cm (mean: 4.96 cm). Results: Six major hepatectomyprocedures and 12 minor hepatectomy procedures were performed.The mean duration of the operation was 205 minutes (range: 90 to 360minutes). The mean intraoperative blood loss was 300 mL (range: 100to 1,500 mL). Two patients received a transfusion (11%). There wasone conversion to open surgery. There was no death and no patientunderwent reoperation. The postoperative morbidity rate was 11% (n =2). One patient presented with a minor complication (lobar pneumonia)while other presented with two major complications (intraoperativebleeding and incisional hernia). The median length of hospital staywas 4 days (range: 2 to 11 days). The median time to return to normalactivities was 13 days (range: 7 to 40 days). Conclusion: Laparoscopichepatectomy is a safe surgical approach for treating both benign andmalignant hepatic lesions. This small series showed no mortality, lowmorbidity and good cosmetic results.