Efficacy of laparoscopic microwave coagulation for hepatocellular carcinoma compared to percutaneous microwave coagulation

Abstract

We treated 47 hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) of 42 patients by laparoscopic microwave coagulation (LMC) and treated 27 HCCs of 25 patients by percutaneous microwave coagulation (PMC). And we compared the efficacy of therapy between LMC and PMC. The mean diameter of HCCs was 18.3 mm in group of LMC and 17.0 mm in group of PMC. In follow-up observation, local recurrences were detected in 4 cases of LMC and in 2 cases of PMC. We think that HCC can be coagulated more exactly by LMC than by PMC, because we can coagulate the HCC under direct vision and puncture the needle into HCC several times with equal intervals by LMC. But no differences were observed in efficacy of therapy between LMC and PMC until now.