The Feasibility of Laparoscopic Hepatectomy for the Patients with Left Intrahepatic Stones

PURPOSE: Recently, there have been several studies on the early results of hepatectomy for various intrahepatic lesions. We report the early experience of our hospital after total laparoscopic left hepatectomy in patients with intrahepatic stones in the left hemi-liver. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the medical records of patients who were diagnosed with left intrahepatic stones and underwent hepatectomy between January 2007 and June 2009. The patients were grouped according to operative procedure into open hepatectomy, laparoscopy-assisted hepatectomy, and total laparoscopic hepatectomy. RESULTS: There were 31 patients who underwent Lt hemihepatectomy and Lt lateral sectionectomy during this period. Hepatectomy with open method, laparoscopy-assisted method, and total laparoscopy method were performed in 10, 14, and 7 cases. There were no significant differences between the three methods for operating time and postoperative complications. But the number of fasting times and hospital days was shorter with total laparoscopic hepatectomy than with others. CONCLUSION: Total laparoscopic liver resection is a safe and useful method for treating patients with intrahepatic stones and offers the advantage of quick patient recovery. Careful selection of appropriate patients and further development in the laparoscopic surgical technique resulting from accumulated experiences will help enable the laparoscopic hepatectomy to be performed more easily and safely in patients with intrahepatic stones.

Laparoscopy-assisted Hepatic Resection in a Patient with Eosinophilic Liver Abscess by Toxocaris Cani Involving Liver

The laparoscopy-assisted hepatic resection has been introduced for solitary benign or malignant hepatic tumors. We successfully had undergone left lateral sectionectomy with assistance of laparoscopy. Forty-three year old male patient was admitted for diagnosis of liver mass. Abdominal computed tomography showed a 2 cm sized single nodular tumor in segment 3 which was consistent with hepatoma. He underwent laparoscopy-assisted left lateral sectionectomy using Cavitron Ultrasonic Surgical Aspirator and Ultrasonic Shears. The patient discharged without any complications in the 8th postoperative day. The pathologic findings of nodule were consistent with the eosinophilic abscess of liver. Left lateral sectionectomy of liver can be conducted safely with assistance of laparoscopy.