Appropriate indications for laparoscopic repeat hepatectomy

BACKGROUND: Laparoscopic repeat hepatectomy (LRH) has increased, but appropriate indications for LRH are unclear. This study aimed to clarify appropriate indications for LRH. METHODS: We retrospectively compared surgical outcomes between open RH (ORH) (n = 57) and LRH (n = 40) groups. To detect difficult cases of complete pure LRH, we examined patients with unplanned intraoperative hand-assisted laparoscopic surgery (HALS)/open conversion (n = 6). RESULTS: In the LRH versus ORH group, as previous hepatectomy, laparoscopic (75% vs. 12%, p < 0.001) and partial hepatectomy (Hr0) (73% vs. 37%, p = 0.002) were more frequently performed, and as RH procedure, partial hepatectomy (Hr0) (88% vs. 47%, p = 0.0002) was more frequently performed. S1 tumor cases were higher in ORH group (11% vs. 0%), but S2-6 cases were higher in LRH group (73% vs. 49%) (p = 0.02). In LRH group, compared to the pure LRH patients, HALS/open conversion patients underwent significantly more previous hepatectomy with more than lobectomy (Hr2-3) (33% vs. 2.9%, p = 0.033) and more RH procedures with segmentectomy (HrS) (33% vs. 2.9%, p = 0.03). All LRH requiring a repeat hepatic hilar approach were HALS conversions. CONCLUSION: Appropriate indications for LRH were previous hepatectomy was laparoscopic partial hepatectomy (Hr0), and RH procedure was partial hepatectomy (Hr0) for S2-6 tumor location. When RH is more than segmentectomy (HrS) requiring a repeat hepatic hilar approach, planned HALS or ORH may be a better approach than pure LRH. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12893-023-02208-y.