Long-term outcomes of thermal ablation vs surgical resection for single small hepatocellular carcinoma

Table 1 Baseline characteristics and periprocedural metrics of patients with single small hepatocellular carcinoma, n (%)/mean ± SD

		Surgical resection group, n = 143	Thermal ablation group, n = 114	P value	Test
Age (years)		54.0 ± 9.2	60.3 ± 10.2	< 0.001	T
	≤ 60	109 (76.2)	62 (54.4)
	60-80	34 (23.8)	46 (40.4)
	≥ 80	0 (0)	6 (5.3)
Sex	Male	119 (83.2)	85 (74.6)	0.121	χ2
	Female	24 (16.8)	29 (25.4)
Residence	Urban	53 (37.1)	53 (46.5)	0.127	χ2
	Rural	90 (62.9)	61 (53.5)
BMI		24.91 ± 3.4	24.75 ± 3.4	0.709	T
AFP (ng/mL)	≤ 20	81 (56.6)	72 (63.2)	0.252	χ2
	20-400	35 (24.5)	29 (25.4)
	> 400	27 (18.9)	13 (11.4)
HBV	Positive	115 (80.4)	92 (80.7)	1	χ2
	Negative	28 (19.6)	22 (19.3)
HCV	Positive	10 (7.0)	12 (10.5)	0.435	χ2
	Negative	133 (93.0)	102 (89.5)
Child-Pugh class	A	140 (97.9)	108 (94.7)	0.191	Fisher exact
	B	3 (2.1)	6 (5.3)
Hypertension	Yes	33 (23.1)	37 (32.5)	0.124	χ2
	No	110 (76.9)	77 (67.5)
Diabetes	Yes	21 (14.7)	27 (23.7)	0.093	χ2
	No	122 (85.3)	87 (76.3)
Alcohol	Yes	58 (40.6)	47 (41.2)
	No	85 (59.4)	67 (58.8)	1	χ2
Tumor size (cm)		2.3 ± 0.5	2.3 ± 0.8	0.524	T
Differentiation grade	Well-differentiated	19 (13.3)	33 (28.9)	< 0.001	χ2
	Moderately-differentiated	89 (62.2)	13 (11.4)
	Poorly-differentiated	30 (21.0)	9 (7.9)
	Unknown	5 (3.5)	59 (51.8)
Operation time, minute, median (IQR)		175.0 (133.0, 212.0)	85.0 (70.0, 101.3)	< 0.001	Wilcoxon
Hospital stay, days, median (IQR)		14.0 (13.0, 17.0)	7.0 (8.0, 11.0)	< 0.001	Wilcoxon
Blood transfusion	Yes	30 (21.0)	0 (0)	< 0.001	χ2
	No	113 (79.0)	114 (100.0)
Blood transfusion volume, IU/U, median (IQR)		4.0 (2.0, 5.8)	0 (0,0)	< 0.001	Wilcoxon

BMI: Body mass index; AFP: Alpha-fetoprotein; HBV: Hepatitis B virus; HCV: Hepatitis C virus; IQR: Interquartile range.