Intraoperative contrast-enhanced ultrasonography in the evaluation of the radiofrequency ablation completeness in patients with hepatic carcinoma of differently sized nodules

Abstract

Objective To explore the value of intraoperative contrast-enhanced ultrasonography in radiofrequency ablation completeness evaluation in patients with hepatic carcinoma of differently sized nodules.Methods Fifty five patients (69 lesions) with hepatic carcinoma were included and were divided into the experimental group (20 cases,30 lesions in whom CEUS were used) and the control group (35 cases,39 lesions,conventional ultrasound was used).After RAF,the treatment effect of the two groups were evaluated by enhanced CT regularly.Differences between conventional ultrasound and CEUS were compared and their judgement on ablation residual tumor tissue was analyzed.Results After 1 to 24 months of follow-up,the total residual rate of the experimental group and the control group was 13.3％ (4/30) and 35.9％ (14/39) respectively.The significant difference was found in the residual rate between the experimental group and the control group (x2 =5.366,P ＜ 0.05).For the two groups (＞ 5 cm and ＜3-5 cm),the residual rate of the experimental group was 30.0％ and 10.0％,the residual rate of the control group was 87.5％ and 46.2％,there were statistically significant difference (respectively x2 =5.951,4.790,all P ＜ 0.05).The significant difference was found in the recurrence rate (the experimental group:20.0％ (4/30),the experimental group:75.0％ (6/8)),when the lesion was larger than 5 cm in diameter(x2 =5.445,P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions CEUS has advantage over conventional ultrasound for the detection of residual tumor tissues after radiofrequency ablation for hepatic carcinoma,it reduces after ablation tumor recurrence especially in large tumors. Key words: Carcinoma, hepatocellular; Ultrasonography ; Radiofrequency ablation