Does hepatitis B virus infection predict extrahepatic metastasis after hepatic resection in patients with large hepatocellular carcinoma?
In patients positive for HBs-Ag, radiologic examination of extrahepatic organs should be performed as a part of the postoperative surveillance. Hepatitis B virus infection may promote establishment of extrahepatic metastasis.
Although the overall trial similarity and evidence consistency scores are unlikely to be sufficiently accurate for predicting inconsistency between direct and indirect estimates, the assessment framework proposed in this study can be a useful tool for identifying between-trial differences that may threaten the validity of indirect treatment comparisons.