Surgical management of giant hepatic hemangioma: A 10-year single center experience

BACKGROUND: Hepatic hemangiomas are the most typical benign mesenchymal lesions of the liver. Most of these lesions are asymptomatic. Giant hepatic hemangiomas (GHH) (>10 cm) are often symptomatic and require surgical intervention. This study aimed to describe the clinical findings, risk factors, diagnostic approach and management of GHH. METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis of patients with GHH treated at our hospital from January 2008 to December 2018. The medical records of each patient were reviewed to obtain the clinical and surgical data. RESULTS: Twelve patients with GHH were treated during the study period. 9 were female and 3 were male. The mean age of diagnosis was 48,2 years. The most common presenting symptom was abdominal pain. Eight patients presented an abdominal mass. Indications for surgical resections were rupture (n = 2), Kasabach-Merritt syndrome (n = 1) and abdominal pain (n = 9). Right hepatectomy was done in four patients, left lobectomy in four patients, and enucleation in four patients. Embolization was performed in 4 patients, but due to the persistence of symptoms or bleeding, surgery was indicated. The mean operative time was 3.5 h, and median blood loss was 870 ml. The median hospital stay was 5.3 days. For four patients, we registered postoperative complications causing death in one case. All alive patients were asymptomatic at a median follow-up of 55 months. CONCLUSION: Despite limitations and alternative modalities, surgery remains the only effective curative treatment for GHH.