The double-balloon technique: a safe and effective adjunctive technique in patients undergoing arterial therapy for hepatic malignancies with vascular supply not amenable to selective administration

PURPOSE: During catheter directed intraarterial therapy for liver lesions, challenging hepatic vascular anatomy can sometimes prevent selective administration of treatment delivery to liver tumors leading to increased toxicity to normal liver parenchyma. The objective of this study is to describe a variation of the double balloon technique that isolates the feeding artery to liver tumors proximally and distally to provide treatment delivery in lesions that cannot be otherwise selected. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An IRB-approved retrospective review of 7 patients who had undergone either radioembolization, chemoembolization, or bland embolization and the double balloon technique was employed. The devices used for flow augmentation were two 2.1 French balloon microcatheters (Sniper™, Embolx). One balloon was inflated distal to target vessel and the second was inflated proximal to protect from reflux. RESULTS: DEB-TACE was performed in 3 cases, (90)Y was performed in 4, and bland embolization was performed in the last patient. There were no adverse effects from the procedure or clinically evident effects from non-target embolization. Mean follow up time was 286.4 +/− 200.1 days. Six of the 7 patients are alive. One patient passed away on post-procedure day 121 from septic shock unrelated to the procedure. One patient was bridged to transplant with an additional TACE of a separate lesion. CONCLUSION: Double-balloon technique for patients undergoing (90)Y or chemoembolization is a safe adjunctive technique for super selective treatment of hepatic lesions where direct selection via catheter is not feasible. This may increase the range of lesions that can be both safely and effectively treated by catheter directed therapies. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s42155-023-00349-y.