23 patients with solitary HCC were firstly treated by laparoscopic microwave coagulation (LMC) and 39 were initially treated by percutaneous ethanol injection (PEI). For these 63 cases, we analyzed the survival rates and compared the rates between LMC group and PEI group. Of these patients, the longest diameters of HCC were between 7 and 40 mm. 4-year survival rates were 86% in LMC group and 58% in PEI group. The differences of survival rates were not statistically significant between LMC and PEI group (p=0.15). When HCC were 20 mm or less, 4-year survival rates (82%) in LMC group were almost the same percentage as in those (65%) of PEI group (p=0.88). However, when HCC were larger than 20 mm, 4-year survival rates (90%) of LMC group were significantly higher than those (42%) of PEI group (p=0.04).
