Efficacy of laparoscopic microwave ablation in treatment of malignant liver tumors

Objective To investigate the local efficacy and safety of laparoscopic microwave ablation (MWA) in the treatment of malignant liver tumors.Methods A retrospective analysis was performed for the clinical data of 105 patients with malignant liver tumors who were admitted to Xianyang Central Hospital, Southern Medical University, from June 2014 to May 2016 and treated by MWA.According to the surgical approach of MWA, these patients were divided into ultrasound-guided percutaneous microwave coagulation therapy group (group A) with 55 patients and laparoscopic MWA group (group B) with 50 patients.The Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate mean disease-free survival.As for the data of postoperative complications, local efficacy of MWA, liver function at 1 month after surgery, mean disease-free survival time, and 1-, 2-, and 3-year disease-free survival rates after surgery, the chi-square test was used for the comparison of categorical data between groups;the normally distributed continuous data were expressed as mean±SD, and the t-test was used for comparison.Results All patients had improvements in the symptoms after surgery, marked alleviation of liver pain, and increased appetite.There were significant differences between group A and group B in the incidence rate of complications (27.3% vs 8.0%, χ2=6.144, P<0.05) , one-time complete ablation rate (74.5% vs 92.0%, χ2=5.162, P<0.05) , and Child-Pugh class of liver function at 1 month after surgery (χ2=2.135, P<0.05) .Group B had significantly higher mean hospital costs than group A (t=3.612, P<0.05) .There were no significant differences between the two groups in mean hospital stay, mean disease-free survival time, and 1-year disease-free survival rate (t=0.628, χ2=0.562 and 0.288, all P>0.05) .Compared with group A, group B had significantly higher 2-and 3-year disease-free survival rates (χ2=6.426 and 3.162, both P<0.05) .Conclusion The laparoscopic approach expands and optimizes the range of the indications for microwave therapy for liver tumors and has good efficacy and few complications.