IMMEDIATE COMPLICATIONS AFTER 88 HEPATECTOMIES - BRAZILIAN CONSECUTIVE SERIES

BACKGROUND: Hepatectomies have been increasingly recommended and performed in Brazil; they present great differences related to immediate complications. AIM: Assessing the immediate postoperative complications in a series of 88 open liver resections. METHOD: Prospective database of patients subjected to consecutive hepatectomies over nine years. The post-hepatectomy complications were categorized according to the Clavien-Dindo classification; complications presenting grade equal to or greater than 3 were considered major complications. Hepatic resections involving three or more resected liver segments were considered major hepatectomies. RESULTS: Eighty-four patients were subjected to 88 hepatectomies, mostly were minor liver resections (50 cases, 56.8%). Most patients had malignant diseases (63 cases; 71.6%). The mean hospitalization time was 10.9 days (4-43). Overall morbidity and mortality rates were 37.5% and 6.8%, respectively. The two most common immediate general complications were intra-peritoneal collections (12.5%) and pleural effusion (12.5%). Bleeding, biliary fistula and liver failure were identified in 6.8%, 4.5% and 1.1% of the cases, respectively, among the hepatectomy-specific complications. CONCLUSION: The patients operated in the second half of the series showed better results, which were apparently influenced by the increased surgical expertise, by the modification of the hepatic parenchyma section method and by the increased organ preservation.