Chun-Ming Chang, Chang-Kuo Wei, Shih-Pin Lin, Da-Wen Hsu, Chun-Hung Lin
Department of Surgery, Buddhist Dalin Tzu Chi General Hospital, Chiayi, Taiwan
Abstract
Hemangiomas are the most common benign tumors of the liver. Most of them remain stable. However, when a hemangioma continues to grow, it may become symptomatic. We describe a 40-year-old woman who initially presented with a hemangioma approximately 3 cm in diameter in the right lobe of the liver. Eight years after the initial presentation, the hemangioma had grown to 11 × 8 cm with the symptom of abdominal pain. She was managed with conservative treatment at another hospital. However, the symptoms and tumor bothered her physically and psychologically for 1 year. Surgical resection was performed to relieve her symptoms. The huge tumor was compressing the inferior vena cava and was very close to the middle hepatic vein, which made the operation difficult. The postoperative course was uneventful. We suggest early surgical resection for symptomatic giant hepatic hemangiomas. We also review reports in the literature about the treatment of symptomatic hepatic hemangiomas, including surgery, transcatheter arterial embolization and radiofrequency ablation. [Tzu Chi Med J 2008;20(1):70–72]
Keywords
Giant hepatic hemangioma; Hepatectomy; Radiofrequency ablation; Transcatheter arterial embolization
