Right hemi-hepatectomy for a giant hemangioma: presentation of a case

Abstract

The hepatic hemangioma is the most frequent benign tumor of the liver, almost always diagnosed incidentally by abdominal echosonogram. They are mainly asymptomatic, except if they are giant, and the symptoms are the effect of the mass. This was the case of a white, female patient, aged 42 years, who, six month before the diagnosis, began having a shooting pain in the right hypochondria, of light intensity when doing media efforts.  We made an abdominal echosonogram, showing a hepatomegaly of 3 cm, with a predominance of the right lobe and an increase of the hepatic ecogenicity. After 3 months, the pain intensified and we carried out a liver contrasted computerized tomography with the diagnosis of a giant hepatic hemangioma in the right lobe. She was remitted to the Gastroenterology consultation and they stated the painful hepatomegaly of the right lobe. There it was an interconsultation with the Surgery Service to explore the possibility of the surgery treatment. The complementary examinations for entering the patient were normal. In the surgery, it was found that the hemangioma measured 15x13x5 cm. We made the resection of the VII and VIII hepatic segments tying the right suprahepatic. The patient was discharged 5 days later without complications, with re-consultation after a month, when the evolutional complementary studies were normal, and there was a total regeneration of the resected hepatic lobe according to the echosonogram. The patient keeps asymptomatic after 3 months of the surgery.