The regularity of abdominal pain and its influence factors in patients with primary hepatocellular carcinoma after receiving TACE / 介入放射学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the regularity of abdominal pain and its influence factors in patients with primary hepatic carcinoma (PHC) after receiving transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE).Methods A total of 121 patients with PHC were enrolled in this study.All patients were admitted to the Department of Interventional Radiology of Zhejiang Provincial Cancer Hospital from December 2012 to June 2013,and all patients were suffered from PHC.The occurrence,duration and severity of the abdominal pain as well as the used dosage of morphine within 48 hours after TACE were documented.The results were statistically analyzed.Results A total of 96 patients (96/121,78.5％) complained of different degrees of abdominal pain after interventional therapy,and 72 patients (72/121,59.5％) showed moderate to severe pain,with the VAS score being more than 4 points.The average dosage of morphine used each time for one patient was 19.7 mg.Statistical analysis indicated that these patients were more prone to develop abdominal pain after TACE if they carried more than one of the following risk factorsage ≥60 years (when compared with patients ＜60 years,OR0.307,P=0.008),preoperative ECOG score ＞2 (when compared with a ECOG score of 0-1,OR0.195,P=0.006),the distance between tumor and liver capsule ＞1 cm (when compared with the distance ≤ 1 cm,OR0.296,P=0.007),the use of THP in performing chemoembolization (when compared with other chemotherapeutic drugs,OR0.232,P＜0.003 4).Conclusion After TACE abdominal pain is a high-frequency event.The independent factors affecting the occurrence of abdominal pain are age＜60 years,preoperative ECOG score ＞2,tumor located close to liver capsule,and the use of THP-lipiodol mixture as embolic agent.Therefore,for patients carrying moderate-high risk of abdominal pain,routine use of analgesics before TACE as well as within 12 hours after TACE to prevent the occurrence of abdominal pain is quite necessary.