gms | German Medical Science

Introduction: Elective liver resections are a common surgical procedure in Germany, and numbers are increasing due to the demographic development. Despite technical advances and high experience in liver resection of specialized centers, complications after surgical resection must be considered when planning liver resections. In this study, we analyzed postoperative morbidity and its management on the ground of data derived from a high-volume single center surgical population. By this we aimed to review and optimize perioperative management in the sense of evidence based medicine.

Material and methods: From January 1998 to December 2010, 627 consecutive patients had liver resection for different benign and malignant diseases. We performed 147 major hepatectomy, and 480 atypical resections and segmentectomy.

Results: We operated 244 (2.73%) female patients and the mean age was 61 years (range 16-87y). Of all 627 patients, 498 (79.4%) had malignant disease with metastatic disease in 386 (61.5%) cases. In-hospital mortality rate was 3.8% and morbidity rate was 31.8%. Furthermore, a comprehensive analysis of the treatment modalities for the different complications was performed.

Conclusion: Our data suggests that minor and major liver resections can be performed with acceptable morbidity and mortality. By well-established treatment algorithms most of the complications can be handled effectively.