Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Medicine - Department of Radio-diagnosis

Hepatocellular carcinoma is one of the most common malignancies in the world, with the liver being the second most frequently involved organ in metastatic disease. Although the gold standard treatment for malignant liver disease is surgical resection and liver transplantation, only few patients can undergo such an intervention. Ablative therapies are promising treatment option for patients with liver tumors who are not eligible for surgery. Radiofrequency ablation is one of the most promising imaging-guided thermal ablation techniques used to treat primary or metastatic liver tumors. Even though RFA is considered to be a relatively safe and a low invasive treatment for HCC, some serious complications of RFA such as hepatic infarction, hepatic abscess, perforation of the gastrointestinal wall, tumor seeding, biliary-duodenal fistula and Colonic fistula have been reported. Over a 5-year period in three medical centers, adverse events related to radiofrequency ablation were prospectively recorded in 1000 consecutive patients treated for liver tumors.We reported imaging criteria of post procedure hepatic and extra hepatic changes with exclusion of normal post ablation changes and classified the patients into resolved 2free3 group and " complicated" group ,for major and minor complications, we used the definition of the Society of Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology, which states that a major complication is one that, if left untreated, might threaten the patient's life, lead to substantial morbidity and disability, or result in a lengthened hospital stay. All other complications were considered minor.

Issued also as CD