Diagnosis of benign liver tumors is experiencing exponential growth, mainly owing to the diffusion of more accurate imaging techniques. This monograph examines the epidemiology, histopathology and genetics of these tumors and provides a systematic overview of their evolution and differential diagnosis. Care is taken to document surgical indications accurately, with a view to assisting in the avoidance of useless interventions. Open, laparoscopic and robotic surgical techniques are described and illustrated, emphasizing the optimization of intra- and postoperative management in order to avoid potential complications and degeneration. In these chapters, attention is drawn to the ways in which the surgical management of benign liver tumors differs from that of malignant tumors. The book concludes by examining the role of interventional radiology in patients with benign liver tumors.
Luca Aldrighetti, MD, PhD, is presently Head of the Hepato-biliary Surgery Unit at the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan. His previous professional and scientific education includes PhD in Surgical Technologies (1995) and Surgical Fellow at the Pittsburgh Transplantation Institute. Assistant Professor of Surgery, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University – School of Medicine. President of the Italian Group of Minimally Invasive Liver Surgery (IGoMILS). Dr Aldrighetti is specialized in hepatobiliary surgery, laparoscopic liver surgery, perioperative care of patients undergoing liver resection, surgical care of patient with chronic liver failure, vascular access. His research interests include: pathophysiology and modulation of hepatic ischemia/reperfusion injury and liver regeneration, colorectal liver metastases, perihilar tumors, techniques for liver transection, laparoscopic liver surgery, primary liver tumors.
Francesco Cetta MD, PhD, has been full professor of Surgical Clinics of the University of Siena till 2012. Specialized in Surgery and Urology, he has been visiting professor at UCLA and Cedar Sinai Hospital of Los Angeles (Prof. G. Berci), John Hopkins University, Baltimore (USA) (Prof. H. Pitt, K Liellemoe), University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (Prof. P. Malet), University of Virginia, Richmond (Prof. H. Sugerman), University of Lund a Malmoe (Svezia) (Prof. B. Jeppsson), Hospital Beaujon (Paris, France) (Prof. J. Belghiti) and University of Nagoya (Prof. Y. Nimura). Prof. Cetta is member of the most important Italian surgical societies, as well as of the American College of Surgeons, the International Surgical Society and other relevant international societies. He presently serves as scientific coordinator at IRCCS Multimedica, Milan.
Gianfranco Ferla, MD, PhD, started as Assistant/Registrar Specialist in Surgery at the Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico and at the San Raffaele Hospital Scientific Institute, both in Milan. After being called as professor to the San Raffaele Vita Salute University, further to his academic duties, in 1994 he was nominated Head of the General and Hepatobiliary Surgery Unit at the San Raffaele Hospital and Scientific Institute in Milan, a position which he has held until 2014. G. Ferla has been visiting fellow/professor five times at the Dept. of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh (USA) and at the Dept of Surgery,University of Cambridge (UK). His main research areas are on organ transplantation (liver, kidney, pancreas, multi-organ in animals and liver in humans), gastrointestinal Surgery, Hepatobiliary Surgery (primitive tumors and liver metastasis) and bariatric surgery, and his clinical and experimental scientific activity is documented by over 450 publications.
