The outcomes of 102 initial cases of laparoscopic liver surgery

Objective: To share our institutional experience in laparoscopic liver resection (LLR) and our learning methods for the first 102 cases of LLR. Patients: Our institution started performing LLR since 2012 in accordance with the Japanese-medical-health-insurance. LLRs were divided chronologically into two equal groups of 51 cases, as the early and late study periods, and technical data and outcomes were compared.Results: Between April 2012 and December 2015, 102 LLRs were performed for 97 patients. They were 74(73%) males and 28 (27%) females, and the median age was 66.2 years. The mean tumor size was 21mm (range: 11-85mm). Ninety-seven patients underwent partial resection and five patients underwent lateral segmentectomy.The mean operative time was 445 min (range: 64-1275min). The mean blood loss was 294 ml (range: 0-2755 ml). The rates of overall mortality and major morbidity (over class3A according to the Clavien-Dindo classification) were 0% and 2.9%, respectively. The proportions of resections involving the posterosuperior segments were comparable in both periods (42% vs 42%). The subgroup analysis of resections involving the posterosuperior segments demonstrated results of LLR significantly improved in terms of operative time (475 vs415 minutes, P<0.05). Conclusion LLRs could be feasible with growing experience.