Short-term and middle-term evaluation of laparoscopic hepatectomies compared with open hepatectomies: A propensity score matching analysis

AIM: To compare short-term results between laparoscopic hepatectomy and open hepatectomy using a propensity score matching. METHODS: A patient in the laparoscopic liver resection (LLR) group was randomly matched with another patient in the open liver resection (OLR) group using a 1:1 allocated ratio with the nearest estimated propensity score. Patients of the LLR group without matches were excluded. Matching criteria included age, gender, body mass index, American Society of Anesthesiologists score, potential co-morbidities, hepatopathies, size and number of nodules, preoperative chemotherapy, minor or major liver resections. Intraoperative and postoperative data were compared in both groups. CONCLUSION: Laparoscopic liver resections seem to yield better short-term and mid-term results as compared to open hepatectomies and could well be considered a privileged approach and become the gold standard in carefully selected patients.