Vall d’Hebron Hospital Removes Liver Tumor with Innovative Surgery | Barcelona

A team at Vall d’Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona successfully removed an inoperable liver tumor from a 58-year-old woman using a novel surgical technique incorporating elements of liver transplantation, marking a first for Catalonia. The complex, ten-hour operation, coordinated by Dr. Gonzalo Sapisochin, head of the hospital’s General Surgery and Digestive System Service, was performed in November 2025.

The patient had been diagnosed with a large colangiocarcinoma – a cancer of the bile ducts – that had grown to the size of a handball and enveloped three vital veins supplying the liver, including the inferior vena cava. Conventional surgery was deemed impossible due to the risk of compromising blood flow to the organ, according to hospital statements.

To overcome this challenge, surgeons employed a technique typically used in liver transplants, utilizing the hospital’s Hope machine – an acronym for Perfusión Oxigenada Hipotérmica, or Hypothermic Oxygenated Perfusion – to maintain the liver’s viability while blood flow was temporarily interrupted. The Hope machine is designed to keep organs alive outside the body, but in this case, it was connected directly to the patient, allowing the liver to remain in situ during the tumor’s removal.

“We thought the only way to operate on this patient was to completely disconnect the liver, all the blood flow that enters and leaves this organ, because we had to remove the three veins connected to the liver, all affected. one had to be cut and reimplanted,” explained Dr. Sapisochin, as reported by Antena 3.

The procedure involved completely stopping blood flow to the liver for sixty minutes while the tumor was excised. The Hope machine provided oxygenated, cooled perfusion to preserve the organ during this period. Hospital officials noted that the liver exhibited a minimal reaction following the procedure, suggesting the technique effectively minimized damage.

Vall d’Hebron University Hospital comprises four hospitals – the General Hospital, the Children’s Hospital, the Women’s Hospital, and the Traumatology, Rehabilitation and Burns Hospital – and serves as a regional referral center for Barcelona Nord, a population exceeding 430,000.

The successful surgery offers a potential new therapeutic avenue for patients with advanced liver tumors and cholangiocarcinomas who previously had limited treatment options, primarily palliative care. The patient has since recovered and resumed her normal routines, according to the hospital.