Barros Scheloꢀo P y cols. Experiencia inicial en hepatectomías videolaparoscópicas. Rev Argent Cir 2021;113(3):326-341
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There were ten cases of hepatocellular carcinoma treated by
this technique; if resecꢀon is not feasible, radiofrequency is
also used as an alternaꢀve and, if none of these possibiliꢀes
are available, liver transplantaꢀon is also possible, depending
on availability.
to 39% in 2019, we have to conꢀnue working in these current
circumstances; this last case we operated on is an 83 year-old
paꢀent who underwent laparoscopic liver resecꢀon with all
the advantages of a minimally invasive approach in the COVID
era.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the authors
who contributed with their experience, and among them the
authors of the paper presented today, as this survey clearly
showed that in South America there are at least 51 centers
performing laparoscopic surgery with a global applicability of
28%, but we can see a very important variability between 4%
and 84% that has to do with the data reported by the authors
as to the reasons for the changes.
Juan Pekolj: Good evening. Firstly, thank you for giving me
the opportunity to parꢀcipate in the discussion and in the
contribuꢀon to this excellent work.
I would first like to congratulate Dr. Orꢀz for the excellent
presentaꢀon he made and Dr. Barros Scheloꢁo for leading
this very enriching experience.
I will try to contribute with our experience and explain how
the situaꢀon is worldwide.
The truth is that I would first like to emphasize the fact that
performing comparable experiences in different insꢀtuꢀons
gives reliability and credibility to what has been done and
is being done, because I believe that nowadays one of
the greatest problems of surgery is that in many cases the
experiences cannot be reproduced because of technical
reasons, availability of methods or type of paꢀents; since
the experiences are very comparable, this series meets the
standards or is in tune with those of internaꢀonal publicaꢀons.
We will see that both the learning curve, which I think is an
extremely interesꢀng topic, and operaꢀve ꢀme, conversion
rate, morbidity and mortality also follow the requirements of
what I would call a mature series. The same applies to the
oncologic results, and a very important slide showed that R0
resecꢀons were present in more than 90% of the paꢀents,
which indicates that the technique was very well performed.
We agree with the discussion of the Pringle maneuver;
it is always beꢁer to clamp when the paꢀent is bleeding,
totally in tune with our thoughts. Undoubtedly, logisꢀcs in
implemenꢀng the program was interesꢀng, and it will surely
be one of the quesꢀons.
The truth is that today one asks, and in this case also, if there
is a comparison, if there is a division, if there is a crack, that is
so in fashion, between open and laparoscopic liver resecꢀon,
because someꢀmes I believe that all the series that are
presented have a bias, a reasonable selecꢀon bias.
So, I think it would be controversial to propose that the image
on your leꢄ should be approached by open surgery and the
one on the right by laparoscopy. In fact, one might say: why
do you choose open or laparoscopic hepatectomy?
I believe that the experience of the center counts first, and
the authors of the paper clearly demonstrate the need for
combining experience in open liver surgery and advanced
laparoscopy. Therefore, these are problems or condiꢀons that
should be managed in HPB surgery centers and not in those
that nowadays are called laparoscopic surgery centers that do
a liꢁle bit of everything by laparoscopy, which I believe is not
the ideal.
As I have just shown, the type of lesion is a condiꢀoning factor
for the selecꢀon, the technology available; the volume of
cases: five cases per year does not even allow us to aꢁempt
the procedure by laparoscopy; the type of paꢀent: a cirrhoꢀc
paꢀent is not the same as a paꢀent without cirrhosis, and
the level of training of surgeons, which has been emphasized
during the presentaꢀon of the Southampton publicaꢀon.
Obviously, if we go back to our first publicaꢀon, speaking
of 24 laparoscopic liver resecꢀons nowadays would be
very embarrassing, but the truth is that this was the fact in
And I think that if we want to compare where we are with
where other places are, it is someꢀmes important to consider
the populaꢀon of a naꢀon. For example, Brazil has 1,326 liver
resecꢀons; yet, when we correlate them with the populaꢀon,
they perform 6 resecꢀons per million inhabitants. Argenꢀna
has fewer resecꢀons and less populaꢀon, and the rate is
higher, so I could perhaps say that in Argenꢀna the general
populaꢀon benefits more from the laparoscopic approach
and perhaps this would not be the way to communicate
COVID-related mortality, which is so in fashion today, and we
do not know how to do so. And if we compare it with the
world, Japan is undoubtedly the most developed place, with
157 liver resecꢀons by laparoscopy per million inhabitants.
However, it is very important to menꢀon that Japan has the
best references because all the surgeries must be recorded in
a registry, and surgeries that are not recorded are not paid.
In Japan, which is the most developed country in terms of
the number of liver resecꢀons, 25% of all liver resecꢀons are
performed through laparoscopy, so the numbers presented
by the authors of this work are really commendable.
And if we consider the presentaꢀon made at Academia,
precisely of the same Argenꢀne reality, we see that in
Argenꢀna of 26 centers that perform laparoscopic liver
resecꢀons, only 6 are in the Autonomous City of Buenos
Aires, and I believe that what is very interesꢀng is that the
leaders of these reference centers, and Dr. Barros Scheloꢁo
is not an excepꢀon in this case, are between 45 and 50 years
old, that is to say, the generaꢀon of surgeons in charge of the
management of the disease has changed.
We see that in Argenꢀna most of the centers have less than
50 resecꢀons; however, the experience that has just been
presented already exceeds 100 cases, and in Argenꢀna the
global applicaꢀon is 21%, and 50% of the Argenꢀne populaꢀon
has less than 30% of applicability in the different centers, so
there is a full correlaꢀon between what the authors show and
the internaꢀonal and naꢀonal reality, and the first indicaꢀon
is the presence of metastasis and colorectal cancer.
Another important thing that the authors also emphasize is
that major liver resecꢀons increased across the different three
stages, but minor liver resecꢀons were always more common
because nowadays the idea is to perform parenchymal
sparing surgery and atypical resecꢀons are the most common
among them.
Which are the limitaꢀons in our country?
I believe that in some way the organizaꢀon of the fee-for-
service public versus private health care system was outlined.
The presentaꢀon clearly demonstrated that resources, need
for technology, lack of centralizaꢀon, although is slowly
developing, and the need for training, as I will now menꢀon,
are some limitaꢀons.
2
008, when we had to overcome many barriers from the
perspecꢀve of logisꢀcs and credibility, because at that ꢀme it
was impossible to believe that laparoscopy could reproduce
what was done in open surgery. Then, a few years later, as
the authors menꢀoned, and I am grateful for menꢀoning
the papers, we reached 100 laparoscopic liver resecꢀons.
Then we made progress, and we are going to show you how
applicability varies according to the period observed which
has a lot to do with the type of paꢀents we receive.
However, I believe that it is also very promising and that this
experience that is being published and presented today at
Academia Argenꢀna de Cirugía is a tesꢀmony of that, because
there are new mentors, there are well-trained surgeons in
laparoscopy previously trained in liver surgery, new units
of HPB diseases are being developed, there is scienꢀfic
evidence. This is no longer experimental, as we were told in
2005, and there is internaꢀonal experience that gives us great
support, and finally we will surely be able to parꢀcipate in the
American registry of liver resecꢀon.
If we look back over the last few years, we perform an average
of about 100 hepatectomies per year with some fluctuaꢀons
in some years, and if you consider how the indicaꢀon for the
laparoscopic approach has been growing, from 15% in 2013
So, these are all my quesꢀons for the authors of the paper and