Percutaneous radiofrequency ablation for hepatic tumors abutting the diaphragm: clinical assessment of the heat-sink effect of artificial ascites.

Objective: This study was designed to assess whether artificial ascites has a heat-sink effect on the ablation zone for percutaneous radiofrequency ablation (RFA) of hepatic tumors abutting the diaphragm.

Materials And Methods: We retrospectively assessed 28 patients who underwent percutaneous RFA for the treatment of a single nodular hepatic tumor that abutted the diaphragm from July 2000 to December 2006. All patients underwent ultrasound-guided RFA using internally cooled electrodes. A single ablation for 12 minutes was applied using 3-cm active-tip electrodes. We divided patients into two groups on the basis of whether artificial ascites was introduced before RFA: Group A consisted of patients who received artificial ascites with a mean of 760 mL of a 5% dextrose in water solution (n = 15) and group B consisted of patients who did not receive artificial ascites (n = 13). The volume of the ablation zone was measured on CT images obtained immediately after the ablation procedure, and imaging findings were compared for both groups using the Student's t test. We also compared the local tumor progression rate between both groups using the chi-square test (mean follow-up, 37.4 months).

Results: There was no significant difference between the two patient groups with regard to age, sex, Child-Pugh class, or tumor location (p > 0.05). The tumors were significantly smaller in group A patients (mean +/- SD, 1.6 +/- 0.5 cm) than in group B patients (2.1 +/- 0.7 cm) (p = 0.019). The mean volume of the RFA zone was 31.6 +/- 11.9 cm(3) in group A patients and 30.9 +/- 11.0 cm(3) in group B patients. There was no significant difference between the groups in the ablation volume (p = 0.871). Local tumor progression was noted in four patients (26.7%) in group A and in three patients (23.1%) in group B. There was no significant difference in the local tumor progression rate between the two groups (p = 0.83).

Conclusion: Artificial ascites did not show a heat-sink effect on the volume of the ablation zone after percutaneous RFA for the treatment of a hepatic tumor abutting the diaphragm.