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Oblique axial and oblique coronal MR images parallel to the femoral neck provide more valuable information concerning the proximal femur than orthogonal images. The main disadvantage of the unilateral oblique imaging is that the imaging time is significantly increased when both hips need to be imaged. If the bilateral oblique imaging is performed simultaneously, this increase in imaging time is eliminated because the scanning time for the bilateral oblique imaging and the orthogonal imaging is the same.

Brain metastasis from hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a rare, yet perplexing problem in patients with cancer. We report on 5 patients with metastasis of HCC to the brain after radical hepatectomy. Intrahepatic recurrence occurred in 3 patients, and distant metastasis to sites other than the brain was observed in 3 patients (lung, 2; bone, 1). The symptoms for brain metastasis included headache, hemiparesis, and vomiting. Hemorrhage was found in 4 of 5 patients. All patients had a single nodular lesion in the brain. The alpha-fetoprotein levels were more than 10,000 ng/ml in 4 patients. Two patients underwent surgical resection, 1 received cranial irradiation, and 2 were administered corticosteroids. The interval between diagnosis of the primary cancer and detection of brain metastasis ranged from 2 to 54 months. The mean survival period was only 3 months after diagnosis of brain metastasis. All 5 patients died of neurologic causes. Because no effective treatment for brain metastasis from HCC is available, further study is needed.

We describe a rare case of a large hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in a patient who survived 13 years after repeated transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TAE) and hepatectomy. The patient was a 41-year-old woman found in March 1985 to have a large HCC, measuring 14 x 12 cm in diameter and associated with obstruction of the main portal trunk. She underwent TAE 8 times over a period of 1 year. The serum alpha-fetoprotein level decreased from 18342 to 1871 ng/ml. The patient subsequently underwent left hepatectomy on October 9, 1986. Thirteen years after hepatectomy, the patient is being followed up on an outpatient basis and has had no evidence of recurrence.

We performed a laparoscopy-assisted hepatectomy on a 52-year-old woman with a large hepatic cavernous hemangioma (longest diameter, 8.5 cm). With the use of Pringle's maneuver, the left lateral segment of the liver was resected with a Cavitron ultrasonic surgical aspirator (CUSA) while lifting the abdominal wall. Postoperative hepatic dysfunction was mild and transient, resolving spontaneously early after surgery. We intend to expand the indications of this minimally invasive procedure for hepatic resection.

A retrospective analysis of clinical and pathological factors was performed on 132 surgical cases with solitary-nodule type HCC in our hospital. The overall cancer-free survival rates after 1, 3 and 5 years were 82.2%, 42.3% and 26.5%, respectively. With univariate analysis, the significant prognostic factors for survival were tumor size, cancer cell infiltration of the fibrous capsule of the tumor (fc-inf), invasion into portal vein (vp), and intrahepatic metastasis (im), while significant prognostic factors for non-recurrence were tumor size, fc-inf, vp, im, Edmondson-Steiner's classification and perioperative blood transfusion. With multivariate analysis for recurrence, significant factors were vp, clinical stage (CS), and perioperative blood transfusion. Therefore, prognostic factors for long-term survival in surgical cases of HCC are thought to be good hepatic function, absence of portal invasion, and avoidance of perioperative blood transfusion if possible.