Longer than 3-year survival following hepato-ligamento-pancreatoduodenectomy for hilar cholangiocarcinoma with vascular involvement: report of a case.

A 70-year-old man presented with a mass-forming perihilar cholangiocarcinoma in his left liver, and both the portal trunk and proper hepatic artery were involved by the tumor. We performed a hepato-ligamento-pancreatoduodenectomy (HLPD), including an extended left lobectomy with a caudate lobectomy, and the external iliac vein graft was harvested for portal vein reconstruction while the right middle colic artery was anastomosed to the right posterior hepatic artery. Vascular involvement (portal vein and hepatic artery) and peripancreatic lymph node metastases were proven histologically. Although the liver abscess and pancreatic fistula both occurred postoperatively, the patient is now healthy and still alive 3 years 9 months after surgery without recurrence. We consider that the absence of para-aortic lymph node metastases and hepatic invasion which is not involved beyond the second order of the hepatic ducts in the future remnant liver might therefore have contributed to the satisfactory outcome after performing HLPD in this case.