Hepatic resection and regeneration. Past and present

Hepatic surgery has been performed on condition that the liver regenerates after hepatic resection, and the development of liver anatomy due to Glisson, Rex, and Couinaud has thrown light on hepatic surgery Understanding of feeding and drainage vessels became feasible for systemic hepatic resection; however, it seems to have been the most important problem to control the bleeding during hepatic resection. New types of devices such as cavitron ultrasonic surgical aspirator (CUSA) and Microwave coagulation were exploited to control blood loss during hepatic surgery. Pringle maneuver for exclusion feeding vessels of the liver and the decrease of central venous pressure during anesthesia enabled further decrease of blood loss. Nowadays, 3D-CT imaging may depict feeding and drainage vessels in relation to liver mass, and surgeons can simulate hepatic surgery in virtual reality before surgery, allowing hepatectomy to be performed without blood transfusion. Thus, hepatic resection has been a safe procedure, but there's been a significant research on how much of the liver can be resected without hepatic failure. A prediction scoring system based on ICGR15, resection rates, and age is mostly reliable in some criteria. Even if hepatectomy is performed with a good prediction score, the massive bleeding and associated infection may induce postoperative hepatic failure, while the criteria of postoperative hepatic failure have not yet established. Hepatic failure is supposed to be induced by the apoptosis of mature hepatocytes and necrosis originated from microcirculation disturbance of the liver. Prostaglandin E1 for the improvement of microcirculation, steroid for the inhibition of cytokines inducing apoptosis, and blood purification to exclude cytokines have been tried separately or concomitantly. New therapeutic approaches, especially hepatic regeneration from the stem cell, are expected. (author)