Surgical Considerations in Portal Hypertension.

This review provides an in-depth exploration of portal hypertension (PH) and its implications in various surgical procedures. The prevalence of clinically significant PH is 50% to 60% in compensated cirrhosis and 100% in decompensated cirrhosis. The feasibility and safety of hepatic and nonhepatic surgical procedures in patients with PH has been shown. Adequate preoperative risk assessment and optimization of PH are integral parts of patient assessment. The occurrence of adverse outcomes after surgery has decreased over time in this specific population, due to the development of techniques and improved perioperative multidisciplinary care.

Performance evaluation of a North American center using the established global benchmark for laparoscopic liver resections: A retrospective study.

BACKGROUND: The global benchmark cut-offs were set for laparoscopic liver resection procedures: left lateral sectionectomy, left hepatectomy, and right hepatectomy. We aimed to compare the performance of our North American center with the established global benchmarks. METHODS: This is a single-center study of adults who underwent laparoscopic liver resection between 2010 to 2022 at the Toronto General Hospital. Fourteen benchmarking outcomes were assessed: operation time, intraoperative blood transfusion, estimated blood loss, blood loss ≥500 mL, blood loss ≥1000mL, open-conversion, postoperative length of stay, return to operation, postoperative morbidity, postoperative major-morbidity, 30-day mortality, 90-day mortality, R1 resection, and failure to rescue. Low-risk benchmark cases were defined as follows: patients aged 18 to 70 years, American Society of Anesthesiologist score ≤ 2, tumor size <10 cm, and Child-Pugh score ≤A. Cases involving bilio-enteric anastomosis, hilar dissection, or concomitant major procedures were excluded from the low-risk category. Cases that did not meet the criteria for low-risk selection were considered high-risk cases. RESULTS: A total of 178 laparoscopic liver resection cases were analyzed (109 left lateral sectionectomies, 45 left hepatectomies, 24 right hepatectomies). Forty-four (25%) cases qualified as low-risk cases (23 left lateral sectionectomies, 16 left hepatectomies, 5 right hepatectomies). The postoperative major morbidity and 90-day mortality after left lateral sectionectomy, left hepatectomy, and right hepatectomy for the low-risk cases were 0%, 0%, and 0%, and 0%, 0%, and 0%, respectively. For the high-risk cases post-2017, the outcomes in the same order were 0%, 0%, and 12%; 0%, 0%, and 0%, respectively. For the high-risk cases operated pre2017, the outcomes in the same order were 9%∗, 16%∗, and 18%; 2%∗, 0%, and 9%∗ (asterisks indicate not meeting the global cut-off), respectively. CONCLUSION: A North American center was able to achieve outcomes comparable to the established global benchmark for laparoscopic liver resection.

Nonneoplastic Renal Parenchymal Changes in Renal Cell Carcinoma With Tumor Thrombus.

INTRODUCTION: Renal cell carcinoma may extend into the inferior vena cava (IVC) by the tumour thrombus (TT). Renal cell carcinoma with tumour thrombus (RCC/TT) could be associated with multiple collaterals making the surgery in cases of venous involvement very complex and challenging. The pathologic findings of non-neoplastic parenchymal changes in radical nephrectomy specimens of RCC/TT have not been well described. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective study of 200 nephrectomies for RCC/TT during eight years. We only included 22 patients who had a full histopathological examination of the resected nephrectomies, including the non-neoplastic parenchymal tissues. RESULTS: Median tumour thrombus level was III (range: II-IV), and median tumour diameter was 9.3 (range: 4-17) cm. Clear cell RCC was the most common tumour diagnosis in this cohort. Non-neoplastic renal pathologies included: (1) Global Glomerulosclerosis (GGS) in 90.9% (1-9% GGS in 15, 10-30% GGS in 4, >30% GGS in 1); (2) Interstitial fibrosis in 90.9% (mild in nine, moderate in nine, severe in 2); (3) Acute tubular injury in 14 (63.6%) patients; (4) Chronic inflammation in 77.3% (5-25% in 10, 26-50% in 7); (5) Arteriolosclerosis in all patients (mild, moderate and severe in 12, 9 and 1 patients, respectively); (6) Arteriolosclerosis: as none in 12, mild in six, moderate in four patients; (7) Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis in one patient. Our findings suggest that non-neoplastic parenchymal changes occur in the presence of RCC/TT. Neither tumour extension (via T-stage) nor tumour thrombus level were associated with the degree of any of these non-neoplastic parenchymal changes. CONCLUSIONS: Knowledge of the existence of these non-neoplastic parenchymal changes in addition to determining the tumour margin(s) will be important in caring for and early determining whether any specific medical intervention(s) to help preserve renal function in the remaining contralateral kidney becomes warranted.