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Abstract Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most common malignancy in the world. 90% of patients have an underlying cirrhosis. Among the percutaneous ablation techniques of HCC treatment are percutaneous radiofrequency thermal ablation (RFTA) and percutaneous ethanol injection (PEI). Several imaging modalities to follow up patients with HCC after treatment are available such as Doppler ultrasonography, contrast enhanced ultrasonography, angiography, MRI with and without contrast and triphasic helical CT. The aim of this study was to study the role of triphasic CT in the follow-up after PEI and percutaneous RFTA of HCC to detect the response, tumor necrosis, persistence of viable tissue, evidence of recurrence, and development of new lesions. This study included 36 patients with 38 hepatic focal lesions of variable sizes diagnosed as HCC by Triphasic CT, and serum level of AFP or fine needle biopsy from the focal lesion when the former two methods were not conclusive. They were treated with PEI (16 patients with 17 lesions) or RFTA (20 patients with 21 lesions). Triphasic helical CT scans were done for all patients. We evaluated the pretreatment and 21 days post treatment triphasic helical CT scans for the following features: site, size, number, therapeutic response (tumor necrosis and persistence of viable tissue), volumetric lesion regression, evidence of local recurrence, development of new lesions, and occurrence of procedural complications. |