Surgical and oncological results after surgical treatment of patients diagnosed with sarcoma liver metastases.

INTRODUCTION: The presence of liver metastases in sarcomatous tumors is associated with poor prognosis. However, in selected patients, surgical resection has been suggested as a tool to improve survival rates. The aim of our study is to describe postoperative and oncological outcomes after liver resection. METHODS: A retrospective unicentric study was conducted including patients diagnosed with hepatic metastases from soft tissue sarcoma who underwent hepatic resection between 2003-2019. The inclusion criteria were the presence of resectable disease, including synchronic and metachronic lesions. The presence of extra-hepatic controlled disease was not considered unresectable. RESULTS: Nineteen patients underwent liver resection for liver metastasis of 7 different sarcomatous subtypes. Median age was 58-years. Liver metastases were diagnosed a median 25 months after primary tumor diagnosis. Six patients (32%) suffered of synchronic metastases and 12 (63%) were affected of extrahepatic disease. Major hepatectomy was done in 5 (26 %) patients, 8 (42%) minor complications were described. Median follow-up was 33 months. Survival analysis was performed independently for, GIST tumors and non-GIST sarcomas. One, three and five-year survival rate was 100%, 85.7% and 42.9% in non-GIST sarcomas, while Five and ten-year survival rate was 100% and 40% in GIST, respectively. CONCLUSION: Surgical approach of liver metastases of sarcomatous tumors seems to be useful in order to improve survival in selected patients, while been associated to low complications rate. In our cohort, extrahepatic disease rate is high in comparison with series published before, nevertheless survival is comparable. These results support performing surgical resection in selected patients with stable extrahepatic disease.

Normothermic perfusion machine in liver transplant with cardiac death donor grafts.

The increasing difference between the number of patients in waiting lists for liver transplantation and the number of available donors has generated a great interest in the use of non-ideal organs, like grafts obtained from cardiac death donors (DCD). However, the extreme sensibility to ischemia of these livers results in a low utilization rate and a high percentage of post-transplant complications and re-transplantation. Normothermic perfusion machines (NMP) emerged as an alternative that tries to maintain the viability of the organ and even to improve its function. This review focuses on current results of DCD liver transplantation and on the role that NMP may have in this field.