Portal vein occlusion through embolization or ligation (PVE, PVL) offers the possibility of increasing the future liver remnant (FLR) and thus reducing the risk of hepatic failure after extended hepatectomy. We reviewed the indications, scope and applicability of PVE/PVL in treatment of primary and secondary liver tumours.
A thorough PubMED, Embase, Ovid and Cochrane database search was carried out for all original articles with 30 patients or more undergoing either PVE and any patient series with PVL, irrespective of number with outcome measure in at least one of the following parameters: FLR volume change, complications, length of stay, time to surgery, proportion resectable and survival data. PVE can be performed with a technical success in 98.9 % (95 % confidence interval 97–100) patients, with a mean morbidity of 3.13 % (95 % CI 1.21–5.04) and a median in-hospital stay of 2.1…
