| Abstract: | The authors investigated the usefulness of W-Spiral Catheters for adjuvant hepatic arterial infusion (HAI) chemotherapy following curative resection of colorectal liver metastases. The catheter has a special shape-memory alloy in its tip, which allows preferable fixation without coils and removal of the catheter if desired. A W-spiral catheter was successfully placed in 13 out of 16 patients who had undergone curative hepatectomy. In the remaining 3 cases in which the hepatic artery was smaller in diameter, a catheter was placed using the conventional GDA coiling method. Removal of the W-Spiral Catheter was attempted in 10 of the 13 patients with a Spiral Catheter after termination of HAI chemotherapy. In all cases, the catheters were easily and uneventfully removed, and 3D-CT angiography revealed that the hepatic artery was well preserved in most cases. These findings suggest that a new approach to prophylactic HAI chemotherapy with W-Spiral Catheters and subsequent removal of the catheters is reasonable and desirable. |
