Extracorporeal hepatic resection for previously unresectable neoplasms.

Some hepatic tumors are judged inoperable solely for anatomic reasons, such as the proximity of the tumor with the major vasculature. This is because of high mortality and morbidity rates, as well as a compromised surgical margin.We successfully performed extracorporeal hepatic resections in two patients who were judged to have inoperable tumors by conventional means.Both patients had an uneventful postoperative course, and although one patient had intrahepatic recurrence 6 months after operation, the other patient shows no recurrence 10 months later.Advances in techniques for liver transplantation and organ preservation now allow resection of anatomically unresectable hepatic tumors that were deemed inoperable in the past.