LAUSR

https://jkms.org Kim et al.1 recently reported that partial splenic embolization (PSE) had good safety and efficacy to increase platelet counts in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients with thrombocytopenia who underwent trans-arterial chemoembolization (TACE). In this study, 18 HCC patients with severe thrombocytopenia (< 50 × 109/L) who underwent PSE concurrently with TACE (PSE group) and 72 controls who underwent TACE alone (non-PSE group) were enrolled. Regarding efficacy of PSE, platelet counts in the PSE group were significantly increased compared with those in the non-PSE group. Splenic infarction rates were significantly associated with increase in platelet counts after PSE with the median splenic infarction rates of 77.8%. Regarding safety of PSE in this study, the Child-Turcotte-Pugh scores within 6 months after treatment in the PSE group were significantly higher than those in the non-PSE-group. However, there was no significant difference of severe adverse events occurred in the two group: 11.1% and 9.7% of patients in the PSE and non-PSE groups, respectively.1