Successful Surgical Treatment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Invading Into Biliary Tree

A 41-year-old woman was admitted to hospital with obstructive jaundice. Computed tomography showed a large mass in the right hepatic lobe and marked dilatation of the biliary tree in the left lateral segment of the liver. Angiography showed evidence of neovascularity. Percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography revealed complete obstruction of the common bile duct just below the bifurcation. The serum level of alpha-fetoprotein on admission was 1,080,000 ng/ml. These findings suggested to us a primary hepatocellular carcinoma invading the intrahepatic bile duct. Extended right lobectomy and hepaticojejunostomy for bile drainage was carried out. The patient is doing well 3 years after surgery. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) invading to the portal vein is not so rare, but invasion into the bile duct is much less common. In 1947, Mallory(1) described a single case of HCC invading the gallbladder and obstructing extrahepatic bile ducts. In 1975, Lin(2) termed this HCC “Icteric type hepatoma”. The incidence of such HCC in Japan was reported to be 1.9-9%(2,3). Obstructive jaundice is a clinical manifestation of the terminal stage in HCC. We describe here our treatment of a woman with HCC invading the common bile duct. Right extended lobectomy and reconstruction of hepaticojejunostomy were effective.