Impact of right upper quadrant cytoreductive techniques with extensive liver mobilization on postoperative hepatic function and risk of liver failure in patients with advanced ovarian cancer.

OBJECTIVE: Evaluate postoperative hepatic-function in patients with advanced ovarian cancer (OC) who underwent extensive right upper-quadrant (RUQ) cytoreduction in primary, relapsed or interval settings.

METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed all patients with OC who underwent liver resection, mobilization and/or diaphragmatic-stripping between 01/2013 and 12/2016. Postoperative liver enzyme function (LFTs), assessed by alanine transaminase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and bilirubin (Bil), was correlated with postoperative complications.

RESULTS: 132 patients were identified. 81 patients (61%) underwent upfront, 25(19%) interval and 26(20%) secondary cytoreduction. The surgical procedures were right diaphragmatic peritoneal stripping (81/132;61%), full-thickness resection (42/132;32%), liver-capsule resection (85/132;64%), porta-hepatis tumor resection (11/132;8%) and partial hepatectomy (5/132;4%). 74%(98/132) of patients increased their LFTs postoperatively with a peak at 24-hours. Highest ALT median was 1.7-fold of upper normal limit (UNL), with the highest ALT value rising up to 28-fold UNL on the 1st postoperative day (PoD)(range 6-1792 IU/L). Median value of highest ALP was within normal, with the highest ALP value rising up to 4-fold UNL on PoD 5(range 22-512 IU/L). Median value of highest Bilirubin level was also within normal, with highest Bilirubin level rising up to 6-fold UNL on PoD 5(range: 2-120 μmol/L). Mean LFT-normalization time was 7 days (range: 3-14 days). No significant morbidity was directly linked to LFT deterioration, apart from one case (0.8%) of fatal fulminant hepatic-failure.

CONCLUSION: RUQ-cytoreduction is almost always associated with a transient LFT-increase, with no significant clinical implications and spontaneous normalization within the first postoperative week. Due to the existing risk of fulminant liver failure, albeit rare and difficult to predict, postoperatively elevated LFTs should be monitored, until normalization. Large prospective studies are required to assess the predictive value of LFTs and other risk factors for postoperative hepatic failure in patients with OC undergoing extensive RUQ-cytoreduction.