[The efficacy of preoperative portal vein embolization for extended hepatectomy: a meta-analysis]

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the clinical value of preoperative portal vein embolization (PVE) for extended hepatectomy.

Methods: A comprehensive Pubmed, Medline and Ovid database search to identify all registered literature on portal vein embolization. Meta-analysis was performed to assess the result of PVE.

Results: A total of 9 literatures provided data sufficiently enough for analysis involving in 494 patients. The results showed that postoperative liver failure was higher in the non-PVE group than the PVE group, but there was no difference in postoperative mortality between the PVE and non-PVE group; in sub-category analysis of hepatocellular carcinoma and liver metastasis of colorectal cancer, there was no difference in postoperative 1, 3 and 5-year survival rate between the PVE group and non-PVE group; 1 literature about liver metastasis of colorectal cancer show there was significant difference in postoperative metastasis between the PVE and non-PVE group; several patients after PVE didn't performed hepatectomy due to disease progress.

Conclusions: PVE is a safe and effective procedure to prevent postresection liver failure due to insufficient liver remnant, but surgeon should be cautious to choose the patient for PVE.