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©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Dec 7, 2025; 31(45): 111540
Published online Dec 7, 2025. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v31.i45.111540
Published online Dec 7, 2025. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v31.i45.111540
Comparison of the efficacy of laparoscopic hepatectomy and radiofrequency ablation for small hepatocellular carcinoma: A retrospective study
Zi-Lun Lei, Zheng-Li Tan, Yun-Hai Luo, Ming Yang, Jin-Lin Wang, Yan-Yao Liu, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400016, China
Zheng Qin, Department of Vascular Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400016, China
Co-first authors: Zi-Lun Lei and Zheng-Li Tan.
Co-corresponding authors: Zheng Qin and Yan-Yao Liu.
Author contributions: Lei ZL and Tan ZL contributed equally as co-first authors; Qin Z and Liu YY contributed equally as co-corresponding authors; Lei ZL, Tan ZL, Qin Z, and Liu YY involved in the design of the study, the acquisition and analysis of the data from the experiments, the writing of the manuscript, and conducted a number of collations and statistical analyses; Luo YH, Yang M, and Wang JL designed the experiment and conducted the clinical data collection, performed the postoperative follow-up and recorded the data; all the authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The protocol of this retrospective study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board of the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University.
Informed consent statement: Given the retrospective design of the study and the use of anonymized data, informed consent was not required.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Yan-Yao Liu, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, No. 1 Youyi Road, Yuanjiagang, Yuzhong District, Chongqing 400016, China. liuyanyao@hospital.cqmu.edu.cn
Received: August 6, 2025
Revised: September 17, 2025
Accepted: October 28, 2025
Published online: December 7, 2025
Processing time: 119 Days and 1.2 Hours
Revised: September 17, 2025
Accepted: October 28, 2025
Published online: December 7, 2025
Processing time: 119 Days and 1.2 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: This study demonstrates that for patients with small hepatocellular carcinoma, laparoscopic hepatectomy (LH) offers significantly better long-term survival compared to radiofrequency ablation, despite a higher risk of short-term complications. LH was associated with higher 3-year overall and disease-free survival rates. The findings suggest that LH should be the preferred curative option for suitable patients with adequate liver function, while radiofrequency ablation remains a valuable less invasive alternative for higher-risk cases.