Balloon-occluded transcatheter arterial chemoembolization for hepatocellular carcinoma

Figure 1 A 71-year-old female patient with hepatitis-C related hepatocellular carcinoma 45 mm in diameter underwent balloon-occluded transcatheter arterial chemoembolization. A: A 3-Fr microballoon catheter was inserted into a tumor-feeding artery. After achieving occlusion with the microballoon catheter (yellow arrowhead), emulsion of lipiodol and miriplatin was infused until the cancer nodule (white arrowhead) was sufficiently filled. Fragmented gelatin sponge slurry was then injected; B: Just after B-TACE, computed tomography (CT) showed a dense lipiodol emulsion (LE) accumulation in HCC nodules (red arrowhead); C: Four years after B-TACE, CT showed that the volume of the LE accumulation was reduced (black arrowhead) with no local recurrence. HCC: Hepatocellular carcinoma; B-TACE: Balloon-occluded transcatheter arterial chemoembolization.