A Historic Perspective of Liver Surgery for Tumors at The End of The Millennium

Abstract

Liver surgery has evolved in one “surgical lifetime” from being almost nonexistent to a repertoire of operations that can safely remove nearly any amount of liver tissue. These operations are now performed at numerous hospitals and medical centers throughout the world. Such phenomenal achievement did not come easily, but with the “blood, sweat, and tears” of patients and their families and of courageous surgeons who were enabled by extraordinary developments in anesthesiology, infectious disease, and radiologic imaging.