RESECTION OF THE LIVER:  CONDITIONS FAVORABLE FOR OPERATION; METHODS; EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES

Relatively few resections of the liver have been reported in surgical literature. Several recent textbooks and at least two modern systems of surgery do not even mention the operation. This is probably because so few cases occur in the individual surgeon's experience, no single surgeon having published reports of more than six cases; yet resections of the liver have been done successfully for many years. In the United States Keen¹ reported his first case forty-seven years ago and added his third case and tabulated seventy-six cases from the world literature forty years ago. Bastianelli,² one of the earliest operators, in addition to his original publication forty-three years ago has sent us a personal report of six cases. Garré³ early stated that "no method can be introduced into general surgery unless it can be executed with simple means which every operator has at hand." More than thirty years