Preoperative portal vein embolization for liver malignancies.

Background/aims: To study effectiveness of preoperative portal vein embolization before extensive hepatic resection in patients with primary or secondary liver malignancies.

Methodology: Between December 1997 and May 2003, right portal vein embolization was performed in 24 patients. The indication to the procedure was a small amount (< 30%) of the future remnant liver.

Oily chemoembolization of pancreatic head adenocarcinoma.

Oily chemoembolization is a known method of treatment for hepatic malignancies but was never used for pancreatic cancer. We report the case of a 48-year-old patient with unresectable adenocarcinoma of the pancreatic head treated by repeated chemoembolizations of the feeding (gastroduodenal) artery with gemcitabine-in-lipiodol. After 10 procedures there was a marked decrease in tumor.

Transcatheter therapy of gastric cancer metastatic to the liver: preliminary results.

Little is known about the effectiveness of transcatheter chemotherapy in liver metastases from gastric cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the initial results of hepatic artery infusion and oily chemoembolization in these liver secondaries. Courses of transcatheter arterial infusion with 5-fluorouracil/ doxorubicin (12 patients) and oily chemoembolization with doxorubicin-in-iodized oil and gelatin sponge (12 patients) were performed in 24 patients with histologically proven unresectable gastric cancer liver metastases.

Ischemic complications of transcatheter arterial chemoembolization in liver malignancies.

Objective: To determine the frequency, character, methods of treatment, and outcome of ischemic complications after transcatheter hepatic artery chemoembolization (TACE).

Material And Methods: Between 1985 and 1998, 827 sessions of TACE with Doxorubicin mixed with iodized oil, and gelatin sponge particles were performed in 282 patients with primary and metastatic liver cancer. Post-TACE monitoring included clinical observation, US and CT.

Pelvic pain syndrome caused by ovarian varices. Treatment by transcatheter embolization.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical effect of therapeutic embolization in the pelvic congestion syndrome caused by ovarian varices.

Material And Methods: Six women, aged 25-40 years, with pelvic pain syndrome and marked left (n = 5) or bilateral (n = 1) ovarian varicocele were treated by transcatheter retrograde venous embolization.

Results: The pelvic pain syndrome disappeared in all patients within 4 weeks, and there was regression of the periodic pain in 2 women with dysmenorrhoea.