Resumen de Hepatocarcinoma con invasión cardiovascular: comunicación de 5 casos y revisión de la literatura

José M Valera M, Roberto Merino Z, Patricio Palavecino, Luis Sepúlveda M, Gladys Smok, Manuel Fernández A, Javier Brahm

• The diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma in cirrhotic patients has increased, mainly due to early detection using newer imaging techniques. The therapeutic approach depends on the tumor staging and the liver function. Cardiac involvement has a very bad prognosis. We report three males aged 59, 75 and 76 years and two females, aged 64 and 79 years. All had cirrhosis of diverse aetiologies with hepatocellular carcinoma and tumoral invasion of the inferior vena cava and right atrium. Three patients died during hospital stay and two were discharged for conservative management at home. This rare complication has to be considered in cirrhosis (Rev Méd Chile 2004; 132: 1517-22)