Spleen stiffness and volume help to predict posthepatectomy liver failure in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

Posthepatectomy liver failure (PHLF) is the main cause of perioperative death, and liver cirrhosis is one of the most important risk factors for PHLF. Spleen stiffness (SS) is a novel ultrasonic indicator for liver cirrhosis and portal hypertension, however, it is not clear that whether it has a significant influence on PHLF. Future remnant liver volume (FRLV) is a significant factor for liver regeneration after hepatectomy, spleen volume (SV) could also predict the degree of liver cirrhosis, and recent literatures reported that SV to FRLV ratio (SV/FRLV) could predict small for size syndrome (SFSS) in liver transplantation, however, the relationship between SV/FRLV and PHLF in patients receiving hepatectomy is not known. Systemic inflammatory response (SIR) plays a significant role in the pathogenesis and progression of liver cirrhosis, however, it is not very clear about the exact relationship between SIR and PHLF. We prospectively collected the medical data of consecutive patients diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who underwent hepatectomy from August 2015 to February 2016. Preoperative measurements of SS, liver stiffness (LS), SV, FRLV, and SIR were performed on all patients. A univariate analysis was performed to find the risk factors of PHLF and a multivariate analysis was used to identify independent risk factors. The predictive efficiency of the risk factors was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Twenty three (23) (14.6%) patients developed PHLF. Univariate analysis found several variables significantly related to PHLF, they were as follows: tumor diameter (P=.01), cirrhosis (P=.001), neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) (P=.018), LS (P=.001), SS (P=.001), SV/FRLV (P<.001), operation duration (P=.003), transfusion (P=.009), hepatic inflow occlusion (HIO) (P=.001). Finally, SV/FRLV (P<.001, hazard ratio (HR)=26.356, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.627-425.21), SS (P=.009, HR=1.077, 95% CI 1.017-1.141), and HIO time (P=.002, HR=1.043, 95% CI 1.014-1.072) were determined as the independent risk factors of PHLF by multivariate analysis. SS and SV/FRLV help to predict the development of PHLF in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.