Abdominal pain caused by a giant liver hydatid cyst and the management of the residual cavity in a tertiary public hospital in Greece

Diagnosis and treatment of liver hydatid cysts may be challenging. Many surgical techniques have been proposed for the treatment of liver hydatid cysts, but the problem of the residual cavity still remains controversial and challenging, especially in giant liver hydatid cysts which are rare entities that have not been widely described in the literature so far. Capitonnage, external tube drainage and omentoplasty are the most commonly used techniques. Herein, we report the case of a 70-year-old man with a mild upper quadrant pain that proved to have a giant liver hydatid cyst, 21*14 cm(2), occupying the entire right lobe of the liver. We describe a successful surgical approach with cyst unroofing and careful evacuation of the multiple daughter cysts by aspiration, and the effective management of the residual cavity by the combination of all three aforementioned techniques.