The safety of radiofrequency thermal ablation in the treatment of liver malignancies

A case of hemoperitoneum after percutaneous radiofrequency ablation in a patient with hepatocellular carcinoma

We report a case of hemoperitoneum after percutaneous radiofrequency ablation in a patient with hepatocellular carcinoma. A 60-year-old female was hospitalized for the treatment of thrombasthenia and cirrhosis caused by chronic Hepatitis C, and computed tomography revealed hepatocellular carcinoma, which was treated by percutaneous radiofrequency ablation. After the ablation, hemoperitoneum was suspected because of the low hemoglobin level with abdominal pain. Approximately 6 h after the ablation treatment, the patient suddenly fell into a shock state and died. In this case, medical treatment-related death including malpractice was suspected, and forensic autopsy was performed. The abdominal cavity contained 910 mL of dark red fluid blood and 210 g of soft hemocoagula. Moreover, several puncture marks were observed on the liver surface and diaphragm, and there was no clear damage to the main arteries and veins. Considering the macroscopic and microscopic findings, the cause of death was assumed as hemorrhagic shock due to the hemoperitoneum caused by the damage to the liver by radiofrequency ablation. It is important to consider all the indications and adverse effects of radiofrequency ablation.

Case Report: Cytoreductive Surgery and HIPEC Associated With Liver Electrochemotherapy in a Cholangiocarcinoma Patient With Peritoneal Carcinomatosis and Liver Metastasis Case Report

Introduction: Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is the second most common primary tumor of the liver, and the recurrence after hepatic resection (HR), the only curative therapy, is linked with a worse prognosis. Systemic chemotherapy (SC) and liver loco-regional treatments, like trans-arterial chemoembolization (TACE) or radio embolization (TARE), have been employed for the treatment of unresectable intrahepatic metastasis (IM) with benefit on overall survival (OS), but SC has a limited effect on peritoneal metastasis (PM). In the last years, novel treatments like electrochemotherapy (ECT) with bleomycine (BLM) for IM and cytoreductive surgery with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (CRS and HIPEC) for PM have been applied in small series but with encouraging results. We hereby describe the first synchronous application of ECT and CRS and HIPEC for the treatment of a patient with IM and PM from CCA. Case Description: A 47-year-old male patient with CCA underwent HR followed by adjuvant SC. After 14 months, for the occurrence of IM, the patient underwent a second HR and SC. Nonetheless, a new recurrence occurred and a third attempt of HR was proposed. Due to the intraoperative finding of unresectable IM with PM, no resective procedure was performed and the patient was referred to our center. CRS and HIPEC with cisplatin and mitomycin for PM and ECT with BLM on a bulky metastasis of the hepatic hilum were performed after 38 months from the first HR. The length of hospital stay was 19 days. At the computed tomography (CT) performed 11 days after treatment complete necrosis of the treated IM was detected. Results: CT scan after 3 and 6 months and magnetic resonance after 9 months were performed. Necrosis of the treated IM nor PM but progression of the residual liver lesions was observed. After 3 months, the patient received SC and underwent TACE after 8 months and TARE after 9 months for the residual liver metastases. At 14 months from CRS and HIPEC, the patient is alive, in good condition, and with stability of the disease. Conclusions: The association of ECT and CRS and HIPEC could be safe and effective for the treatment of unresectable recurrent intrahepatic CCA with PM.

Gastrointestinal tract injuries after thermal ablative therapies for hepatocellular carcinoma: A case report and review of the literature

BACKGROUND

Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and microwave ablation (MWA) represent the standard of care for patients with early hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who are unfit for surgery. The incidence of reported adverse events is low, ranging from 2.4% to 13.1% for RFA and from 2.6% to 7.5% for MWA. Gastrointestinal tract (GIT) injury is even more infrequent (0.11%), but usually requires surgery with an unfavourable prognosis. Due to its low incidence and the retrospective nature of the studies, the literature reporting this feared complication is heterogeneous and in many cases lacks information on tumour characteristics, comorbidities and treatment approaches.

CASE SUMMARY

A 77-year-old man who had undergone extended right hepatectomy for HCC was diagnosed with early disease recurrence with a small nodule compatible with HCC in the Sg4b segment of the liver with a subcapsular location. He was treated with percutaneous RFA and a few week later he was urgently admitted to the Surgery ward for abdominal pain and fever. A subcutaneous abscess was diagnosed and treated by percutaneous drainage. A fistulous tract was then documented by the passage of contrast material from the gastric antrum to the abdominal wall. The oesophagogastroduodenoscopy confirmed a circular wall defect at the lesser curvature of gastric antrum, leading directly to the purulent abdominal collection. An over-the-scope clip (OTSC) was used to successfully close the defect

CONCLUSION

This is the first reported case of RFA-related GIT injury to have been successfully treated with an OTSC, which highlights the role of this endoscopic treatment for the management of this complication.

Association between hospital volume and in-hospital mortality following radiofrequency ablation for hepatocellular carcinoma

Background

Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is a minimally invasive treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). There is increasing evidence of an association between increasing hospital volume and lower postoperative mortality for many surgical procedures, but this is difficult to establish with minimally invasive treatments, where postoperative mortality is low. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between hospital volume and in-hospital mortality following RFA using a Japanese nationwide database.

Methods

Data from the Diagnostic Procedure Combination database were analysed from 1 July 2010 to 31 March 2012. Multivariable logistic regression was used to analyse the relationship between hospital volume and in-hospital mortality following RFA, with adjustment for patient background.

Results

Some 36 675 patients with HCC were identified in the database. The overall in-hospital mortality rate from RFA was 0·31 per cent. In-hospital mortality was significantly higher in low-volume than high-volume hospitals (odds ratio 2·57, 95 per cent c.i. 1·61 to 4·09; P < 0·001). Higher in-hospital mortality was significantly associated with older age and a higher Charlson Co-morbidity Index score.

Conclusion

RFA for HCC was associated with acceptably low mortality in Japan, but in-hospital mortality following RFA was affected by hospital procedural volume.

Complications after percutaneous ablation of liver tumors: a systematic review

BACKGROUND

Although ablation therapy has been accepted as a promising and safe technique for treatment of unrespectable hepatic tumors, investigation of its complications has been limited. A physician who performs ablation treatment of hepatic malignancies should be aware of the broad spectrum of complications. Proper management is possible only if the physician Performing ablation understands the broad spectrum of complications encountered after ablation.

OBJECTIVES

TO SYSTEMATICALLY REVIEW THE COMPLICATIONS AFTER DIFFERENT ABLATION MODALITIES: Radiofrequency ablation (RFA), microwave ablation (MWA) and Nano knife for the treatment of liver tumors and analyze possible risk factors that precipitate these complications.

SEARCH METHODS

WE PERFORMED ELECTRONIC SEARCHES IN THE FOLLOWING DATABASES: MEDLINE, EMBASE and COCHARNE. Current trials were identified through the Internet (from January 1, 2000 to January 1, 2014). We included only studies who specific mentioned complications after liver ablation therapy (RFA/MWA/Nano knife).

MAIN RESULTS

A total of 2,588 publications were identified, after detailed examination only 32 publications were included in the review. The included studies involved 15,744 participants. According to the type of technique, 13,044 and 2,700 patients were included for RFA and MWA. Analysis showed a pooled mortality of 0.15% for RFA, and 0.23% for MWA.

CONCLUSIONS

This systematic review gathers information from controlled clinical trials and observational studies which are vulnerable to different types of bias, never the less RFA and MWA can be considered safe techniques for the treatment of liver tumors.

Radiofrequency ablation for postoperative recurrences of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma

OBJECTIVE

Most recurrent intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (RICC) lost the opportunity of radical resection while most nonsurgical management failed to prolong patients' survival. The efficacy and safety of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) as a local treatment for recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma have been confirmed by many clinical studies. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy, long-term survival and complications of RFA for RICC.

METHODS

A total of 12 patients with 19 RICCs after radical resection were included in this study. The tumors were 1.9-6.8 cm at the maximum diameter (median, 3.2±1.6 cm). All patients were treated with ultrasound guided RFA. There were two RFA approaches including percutaneous and open.

RESULTS

A total of 18 RFA treatment sessions were performed. Ablation was successful (evaluated by 1-month CT after the initial RFA procedure) in 18 (94.7%) of 19 tumors. By a median follow-up period of 29.9 months after RFA, 5 patients received repeated RFA because of intrahepatic lesion recurrence. The median local recurrence-free survival period and median event-free survival period after RFA were 21.0 months and 13.0 months, respectively. The median overall survival was 30 months, and the 1- and 3-year survival rates were 87.5% and 37.5%, respectively. The complication rate was 5.6% (1/18 sessions). The only one major complication was pleural effusion requiring thoracentesis.

CONCLUSION

This study showed RFA may effectively and safely manage RICC with 3-year survival of 37.5%. It provides a treatment option for these RICC patients who lost chance for surgery.

SonoKnife for ablation of neck tissue: in vivo verification of a computer layered medium model

PURPOSE

This study aimed to determine which treatment parameters of the SonoKnife device can be used to safely and effectively perform non-invasive thermal ablation of subcutaneous tissue.

METHODS

A three-dimensional computational layered medium model was constructed to simulate thermal ablation treatment of the SonoKnife device. The acoustic and thermal fields were calculated with the Fast Object-Oriented C++ Ultrasound-Simulator software and a finite difference code, respectively. Subcutaneous tissue was represented as layers of skin, fat and muscle. The simulations were conducted for ultrasound frequencies of 1 or 3.5 MHz. The thermal dose model was used to predict the size and location of the ablated regions. The computer simulations were verified by using the SonoKnife to perform subcutaneous ablations in the neck area of healthy pigs, in vivo. Triphenyltetrazolium chloride viability stain was used to differentiate viable tissue from ablated regions ex vivo.

RESULTS

The simulations for the layered medium model suggest that operating the SonoKnife at frequency of 1 MHz is more effective and safer than 3.5 MHz providing skin cooling is applied prior to ablation. These predictions were in agreement with the results observed in the animal studies. The required sonication time for ablation increased from 50 to 300 s by using 1 MHz.

CONCLUSION

Our modelling and animal studies suggest that 1 MHz with pretreatment skin cooling are the optimal settings to operate the SonoKnife to safely and effectively perform subcutaneous thermal ablation of porcine skin. More work is needed to optimise skin cooling and define the optimal sonication time.

Laparoscopy in Liver Transplantation: The Future has Arrived

In the last two decades, laparoscopy has revolutionized the field of surgery. Many procedures previously performed with an open access are now routinely carried out with the laparoscopic approach. Several advantages are associated with laparoscopic surgery compared to open procedures: reduced pain due to smaller incisions and hemorrhaging, shorter hospital length of stay, and a lower incidence of wound infections. Liver transplantation (LT) brought a radical change in life expectancy of patients with hepatic end-stage disease. Today, LT represents the standard of care for more than fifty hepatic pathologies, with excellent results in terms of survival. Surely, with laparoscopy and LT being one of the most continuously evolving challenges in medicine, their recent combination has represented an astonishing scientific progress. The intent of the present paper is to underline the current role of diagnostic and therapeutic laparoscopy in patients waiting for LT, in the living donor LT and in LT recipients.

SonoKnife: feasibility of a line-focused ultrasound device for thermal ablation therapy

PURPOSE

To evaluate the feasibility of line-focused ultrasound for thermal ablation of superficially located tumors.

METHODS

A SonoKnife is a cylindrical-section ultrasound transducer designed to radiate from its concave surface. This geometry generates a line-focus or acoustic edge. The motivation for this approach was the noninvasive thermal ablation of advanced head and neck tumors and positive neck nodes in reasonable treatment times. Line-focusing may offer advantages over the common point-focusing of spherically curved radiators such as faster coverage of a target volume by scanning of the acoustic edge. In this paper, The authors report studies using numerical models and phantom and ex vivo experiments using a SonoKnife prototype.

RESULTS

Acoustic edges were generated by cylindrical-section single-element ultrasound transducers numerically, and by the prototype experimentally. Numerically, simulations were performed to characterize the acoustic edge for basic design parameters: transducer dimensions, line-focus depth, frequency, and coupling thickness. The dimensions of the acoustic edge as a function of these parameters were determined. In addition, a step-scanning simulation produced a large thermal lesion in a reasonable treatment time. Experimentally, pressure distributions measured in degassed water agreed well with acoustic simulations, and sonication experiments in gel phantoms and ex vivo porcine liver samples produced lesions similar to those predicted with acoustic and thermal models.

CONCLUSIONS

Results support the feasibility of noninvasive thermal ablation with a SonoKnife.

Mortality and complication rates of percutaneous ablative techniques for the treatment of liver tumors: a systematic review

OBJECTIVES

Reported rates of major complications and mortality of radiofrequency ablation (RFA), microwave ablation (MWA) and percutaneous ethanol injection (PEI) for the treatment of liver tumours were substantially heterogeneous among studies. The aim was to analyse the mortality and major complication rates of percutaneous RFA, PEI and MWA.

METHODS

MEDLINE and EMBASE search from January 1982 to August 2010. Randomised clinical trials and observational studies, age >18, more than 50 patients for each technique analysed, studies reporting mortality and major complications were included. Random effects model was performed, with assessment for heterogeneity and publication bias.

RESULTS

Thirty-four studies including 9531, 1185, and 1442 patients for RFA, MWA, and PEI, respectively were included. For all ablative techniques pooled proportion mortality rate was 0.16% (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.10-0.24). Pooled mortality rate associated with RFA, PEI and MWA was 0.15% (0.08-0.23), 0.59% (0.14-1.3) and 0.23% (0.0-0.58) respectively. Pooled proportion of major complications was 3.29% (2.43-4.28). Major complication rates associated with RFA, MWA, and PEI was 4.1% (3.3-5.1), 4.6% (0.7-11.8) and 2.7% (0.28-7.4) respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

Percutaneous RFA, PEI and MWA can be considered safe techniques for the treatment of liver tumours.

Changes in interleukin-1β and 6 after hepatic microwave tissue ablation compared with radiofrequency, cryotherapy and surgical resections

BACKGROUND

Cytokine changes after microwave tissue ablation (MTA) were compared with hepatic resection, cryotherapy (CRYO), and radiofrequency ablation (RFA). Cytokine production was measured at various ablation volumes for each modality and correlated with the transitional inflammatory zone produced by the ablation techniques.

METHODS

Live rats underwent MTA, surgical resection, CRYO or RFA of 15%, 33%, or 66% of the total hepatic volume. Serum samples were collected preoperatively and at 1, 3, 6, 24, and 48 hours after surgery and analyzed for pro-inflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-6.

RESULTS

Significantly higher levels of both cytokines were present after CRYO and RFA compared with MTA, hepatic resection, or controls (P < .001). All animals survived except those undergoing RFA or CRYO of 66% of the hepatic volume, which died within 6 hours. Transitional zones produced after RFA were larger than those after CRYO or MTA, but no correlation was present with the amount of cytokines.

CONCLUSIONS

Large-volume MTA is associated with a significant decreased cytokine response and is well tolerated compared with RFA and CRYO.

[Radiofrequency ablation as a palliative therapy option in ENT tumors: in vivo and in vitro testing]

BACKGROUND

High frequency thermotherapy (HFTT) is an established palliative therapy for hepatic malignancies. An in vivo and in vitro trial examined the preconditions for the application of HFTT with liquid-cooled wet electrodes for minimally invasive palliation of head and neck tumors.

MATERIAL AND METHOD

HFTT was applied with needle electrodes, cooled with isotonic saline solution, and a high-frequency generator (Elektrotom HiTT 106, Berchtold, Tuttlingen) to porcine tongue and narcotized, juvenile domestic pigs to the tongue and neck, and monitored in realtime by B-mode ultrasound.

RESULTS

The direction of spread of the hyperthermic zone is well observed using ultrasound. Determining the direction of spread is not possible with cooled-tip electrode needles. Severe complications were not observed during the application.

CONCLUSION

RFA with liquid-cooled needle applicators is not safely applicable for the therapy of head and neck tumors.

Advances in permanent 125I seed implantation for colorectal liver metastases

Colorectal cancer is one of the most common cancers worldwide and the second most common type of cancer in the Western world. Colorectal cancer is the most common source of metastatic liver cancer, and liver metastasis is an important prognostic factor for colorectal cancer. Hepatic resection is the treatment of choice for colorectal liver metastases. The postoperative 5-year survival rate for patients with colorectal liver metastase now exceeds 50%. However, hepatic resection is indicated for only 10%-25% of patients with colorectal liver metastases. Therefore, non-surgical methods have attracted increasing attention. Permanent ¹²⁵I seed implantation is now becoming a hotspot for treatment of colorectal liver metastases. This review will focus on the recent advances in permanent ¹²⁵I seed implantation for colorectal liver metastases.