Background: Laparoscopic surgery is considered the standard method for many kind fo pathologies, including gallbiadder and spleen. Howerer, in liver diseases, the application of laparoscopic method has been limited due to the technical difficulties and the rist of bleeding and airembilisms. The obhective of this study was to analyze the feasibility of the laparoscopic approach in liver disease and present different laparoscopic methods of treatmentMethods: A retrospective review of 36 patients who underwent laparoscopic liver resection for benign and mailgrant liver diseases between November 1995 and November 2001 was carried out. Laparoscopic-assisted liver resections were perfomed in 30 patients, gasless laparoscopic liver resection in 5, and hand0assisted laparoscopic resection in 1. Fifteen patients has benign liver diseases and 21, malignant liver diseases, including hepatocellular carcinoma and metastatic hepatic tumorResults: The mean age of the patients was 56.1(42~79) years and there were 22 men and 14 women. the mean operation time was 253.8(120-450)minutes and the mean hospital stay, 10.0(5-19) days, Tge range of resection consisted of the left lateral segmentectomies in patients, righe lobectomy in 1, left lobectomies in 2, bisegmentectomy in 1 and subsegmentectomies in 9. In malignant tumor, the mean size was 3.9(1.3-7.5)cm, complications were noted in 4(11%) patients, but none was life-threatening. No mortality was present in this series.Conclusion: The laparoscopic liver resection is a feasible and relatively safe procedure without sacrificing all the known benefits of the laparoscopic surgery. Not only for the benign liver disease, but also for the malignant diseases could be applied these laparoscopic methods.

Keywords: Laparoscopy, Hepatic resection, Malignancy, Gasless, Hand-assisted