Ex vivo liver resection for liver tumors: Last resort when conventional technique is not applicable

Purpose: The treatment of hepatic neoplasms has undergone, in recent years, various evolution of the surgical technique and extension to the indication for resection. Many patients with liver tumors cannot benefit from resection due to the difficulty of the anatomical site of the lesion.Of these patients, only some can benefit from ex vivo hepatic resection, which consists of a complete hepatectomy, bench tumor resection and self-transplant.

Materials and methods: We have retrospectively evaluated PUBMED databases. Studies was evaluated from 2010 to 2020.Only very few studies analyzed “Ex situ liver resection”, “Extracorporeal liver resection”, “Liver auto-transplantation”.

Conclusion: Ex vivo liver resection and autotransplantation is fesible in very few patients with unresectable hepatic tumor fit for surgery. R0 resection accounts about 60%-90% but outcomes are less satisfactory due to high complications rate of about 25% and low survival in 3 years.