Risk Analysis for Liver Surgery

Surgical procedures for the resection of pathologic lesions are often risky interventions. The risk concerns postoperative complications as well as the success of the operation in terms of its long-term effect. Postoperative complications may result if too much tissue is removed. The long-term effect depends on whether all lesions are detected and are removed entirely together with a saftey margin. Risk analysis is an important aspect in preoperative surgery planning. Currently, preoperative planning considers the general state of the patient as well as special images resulting e.g. from computer tomography (CT). The currently prevailing techniques for preoperative planning are highly subjective and error-prone as no reliable methods exist to evaluate the extent of anatomic and pathologic structures and to quantitatively analyze these structures.