Central bisectionectomy for hepatocellular carcinoma in a patient with indocyanine green excretory defect associated with reduced expression of the liver transporter

BACKGROUND: Indocyanine green (ICG) excretory defect is a dye excretory disorder, and it is characterized by the selective impairment of plasma ICG clearance with normal liver histology. The pathophysiology involves selective loss of active transporters for ICG in the hepatic cell membrane. Several cases of hepatectomy in patients with ICG excretory defect have been reported, but the expression of hepatic transporters involved in ICG excretory defect has not been examined in these cases. CASE PRESENTATION: An 81-year-old man who was hepatitis B and C virus negative was admitted to our hospital with a diagnosis of HCC. Abdominal computed tomography revealed an 8-cm-diameter tumor in hepatic segments 4 and 8. The retention rate of ICG at 15 min (ICGR(15)), which has been used to evaluate hepatic functional reserve, was markedly elevated (79.1 %), whereas other liver function test results, were normal. Therefore, we diagnosed the patient with HCC with an ICG excretory defect, and considered major hepatectomy. Central bisectionectomy was performed, and the postoperative course was uneventful. Microscopic examination of the resected specimen showed moderately differentiated HCC. Immunohistochemical staining and polymerase chain reaction analysis of a non-neoplastic site of the resected specimen showed very few expression of the organic anion-transporting polypeptide 1B3 (OATP1B3), which is usually expressed on the basolateral membrane of human hepatocytes and mediates the uptake of ICG. CONCLUSIONS: In this case, we present a case of hepatectomy for HCC in a patient with ICG excretory defect, which may be attributable to a congenital disorder of OATP1B3 expression; however, an ICG excretory defect did not seem to have any effect on the short-term prognosis after hepatectomy.