Effect of infra-hepatic inferior vena cava clamping on bleeding during hepatic dissection: a prospective, randomized, controlled study.

BACKGROUND: The success of hepatectomy can be associated with intraoperative blood loss because massive blood loss causes a poor prognosis. This study was designed to evaluate the effect of infrahepatic inferior vena cava (IVC) clamping on the bleeding amount during hepatectomy.

METHODS: Eighty-five patients scheduled to undergo hepatic resection were randomly assigned to the IVC clamping or an IVC nonclamping group according to age, indocyanine green retention rate at 15 minutes, operative procedure, and number of tumors by prospective, randomized method. All analyses were compared by Mann-Whitney U test.

RESULTS: Forty-three patients were assigned to the IVC clamping group and 42 to the nonclamping group (IVC clamping group vs. non-clamping): total blood loss (499 vs. 584 ml; p = 0.567), amount of bleeding during hepatectomy (233 vs. 285 ml; p = 0.474), amount of bleeding during hepatectomy/area of dissection (4.9 vs. 6.6 ml/cm(2); p = 0.63), CVP difference (-3 cmH(2)O vs. -1 cmH(2)O; p < 0.01), and diameter of the right hepatic vein (-2.2 cm vs. 0; p < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS: Although we had speculated that infrahepatic IVC clamping would reduce blood loss during hepatectomy, we failed to demonstrate any beneficial effects in this clinical setting with low CVP.