Hepatocellular carcinoma in the caudate lobe of the liver: angiographic analysis of tumor-feeding arteries according to subsegmental location.

Objective: To investigate the tumor-feeding arteries in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) arising in the caudate lobe of the liver.

Methods: From January 1998 to March 2004, 140 patients with 146 caudate HCCs underwent chemoembolization. Subsegmental location of the caudate HCC and the origin of the tumor-feeding arteries was determined with computed tomography and hepatic arteriography. On follow-up angiography at 6-96 months (mean, 24 months), changes in the tumor-feeding arteries were recorded.

Results: A total of 175 tumor-feeding arteries were identified. The tumors in the Spiegel lobe (n = 72) were supplied by tumor-feeding arteries derived from the right hepatic artery (RHA; n = 45), left hepatic artery (LHA; n = 30), and proper hepatic artery (PHA) or common hepatic artery (CHA; n = 6; P = .083, right vs left). In tumors in the paracaval portion (n = 42), the tumor-feeding arteries were derived more frequently from the RHA (n = 46) than the LHA (n = 3) or PHA/CHA (n = 2; P < .001). All the feeding arteries (n = 43) of the caudate process tumors (n = 32) were derived from the RHA (P < .001). During the follow-up period, there were replacements of the tumor-feeding arteries in 16 patients with recurrent tumors. An extrahepatic collateral supply for the recurrent tumors developed in 10 patients.

Conclusions: The distribution of the origin of tumor-feeding arteries supplying caudate HCC is different according to tumors' subsegmental locations. When treating recurrent caudate HCC, it is important to identify replacement of tumor-feeding arteries and extrahepatic collateral supply.