Laparoscopic liver resection is superior to radiofrequency ablation for small hepatocellular carcinoma: a systematic review and meta-analysis of propensity score-matched studies

The approach in small hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is controversial, no prospective randomized trials to compare ablative or surgical approaches. We compared the surgical and oncological outcomes after laparoscopic hepatectomy (LH) and radiofrequency ablation (RFA) in small HCC patients based on matched cohort studies that performed propensity score matching (PSM).

We systemically searched the PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, Web of Science, and the Chinese BioMedical Literature (CBM) databases. All published propensity score-matched studies that compared LH and RFA for small HCC were included in this study.

Eight studies with a total of 1273 small HCC cases were included. The results of the meta-analysis revealed that there was no significant difference in the 1- year overall survival (OS) rate between the two groups, whereas the LH group had significantly higher 3- year overall survival rate (RR = 1.14, 95% CI 1.08–1.20, p < 0.00001) as well as 1- and 3-year disease-free survival (DFS) rates (RR = 1.31, 95% CI 1.22–1.42, p < 0.00001; RR = 1.66, 95% CI 1.46–1.90, p < 0.00001) than the RFA group. Meanwhile, the local recurrence rate and intrahepatic distant recurrence rate were significantly lower in the LH group than in the RFA group (RR = 0.29, 95% CI 0.20–0.42, p < 0.00001; RR = 0.67, 95% CI 0.49–0.92, p = 0.01). In comparison with the LH group, the RFA group had a lower incidence of overall and major postoperative complications (RR = 1.81, 95% CI 1.47–2.24, p < 0.00001; RR = 2.76, 95% CI 1.48–5.12, p = 0.001), but there was no significant difference in postoperative mortality between the two groups. In addition, further comparison of single postoperative complications showed that the incidence of ascites was lower in the RFA group than in the LH group (RR = 3.62, 95% CI 1.64–7.96, p = 0.001), whereas there was no significant difference in the incidence of postoperative bleeding, abdominal infection and bile leakage between the two groups (RR = 3.50, 95% CI 0.74–16.61, p = 0.11; RR = 5.00, 95% CI 0.59–42.23, p = 0.14; RR = 4.00, 95% CI 0.45–35.23, p = 0.21). Besides, the hospital stay was shorter in the RFA group than in the LH group (MD = 4.29, 95% CI 2.06–6.53, p = 0.0002).

Our meta-analysis demonstrated that in comparison with RFA in the treatment of small HCC, LH provided superior long-term OS and DFS together with lower rates of local and intrahepatic distant recurrence after surgery. However, RFA was associated with better short-term outcomes.