In this letter, we comment on the article by Zhou et al that was published in the recent issue of the World Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery. This article proposes a new clinical grading system based on a multidisciplinary team, which prompts us to rethink the clinical management of hepatic hemangioma. Hepatic hemangioma is the most common benign solid liver tumor. In general, follow-up and observation for the vast majority of hepatic hemangioma is reasonable. For those patients with symptoms and severe complications, surgical intervention is necessary. Specific surgical indications, however, are still not clear. An effective grading system is helpful in further guiding the clinical management of hepatic hemangioma. In this article, we review the recent literature, summarize the surgical indications and treatment of hepatic hemangioma, and evaluate the potential of this new clinical grading system.

Compared with the imaging features of typical hepatic hemangiomas, the imaging features of atypical hepatic hemangiomas have not been well studied or well described. Knowledge of the entire spectrum of atypical hepatic hemangiomas is important and can help one avoid most diagnostic errors. A frequent type of atypical hepatic hemangioma is a lesion with an echoic border at ultrasonography. Less frequent types are large, heterogeneous hemangiomas; rapidly filling hemangiomas; calcified hemangiomas; hyalinized hemangiomas; cystic or multilocular hemangiomas; hemangiomas with fluid-fluid levels; and pedunculated hemangiomas. Adjacent abnormalities consist of arterial-portal venous shunt, capsular retraction, and surrounding nodular hyperplasia; hemangiomas can also develop in cases of fatty liver infiltration. Associated lesions include multiple hemangiomas, hemangiomatosis, focal nodular hyperplasia, and angiosarcoma. Types of atypical evolution are hemangiomas enlarging over time and hemangiomas appearing during pregnancy. Complications consist of inflammation, Kasabach-Merritt syndrome, intratumoral hemorrhage, hemoperitoneum, volvulus, and compression of adjacent structures. In some cases, such as large heterogeneous hemangiomas, calcified hemangiomas, pedunculated hemangiomas, or hemangiomas developing in diffuse fatty liver, a specific diagnosis can be established with imaging, especially magnetic resonance imaging. However, in other atypical cases, the diagnosis will remain uncertain at imaging, and these cases will require histopathologic examination.

Diagnosing liver lesions is crucial for treatment choices and patient outcomes. This study develops an automatic diagnosis system for liver lesions using multiphase enhanced computed tomography (CT). A total of 4039 patients from six data centers are enrolled to develop Liver Lesion Network (LiLNet). LiLNet identifies focal liver lesions, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC), metastatic tumors (MET), focal nodular hyperplasia (FNH), hemangioma (HEM), and cysts (CYST). Validated in four external centers and clinically verified in two hospitals, LiLNet achieves an accuracy (ACC) of 94.7% and an area under the curve (AUC) of 97.2% for benign and malignant tumors. For HCC, ICC, and MET, the ACC is 88.7% with an AUC of 95.6%. For FNH, HEM, and CYST, the ACC is 88.6% with an AUC of 95.9%. LiLNet can aid in clinical diagnosis, especially in regions with a shortage of radiologists.© 2024. The Author(s).

Hepatic hemangiomas (HHs) are benign liver lesions often discovered incidentally on imaging for various unrelated pathologies. We herein review the etiology, classification, diagnostic imaging, and management of HHs.A comprehensive systematic review was performed utilizing MEDLINE/PubMed and Web of Science databases, with the end of search date being March 1, 2022, regarding HH diagnosis, imaging, and management.HHs can be broadly classified as capillary hemangiomas or cavernous hemangiomas. While the exact pathophysiology related to the development of HHs remains largely unknown, hormone exposure has been postulated to cause HH growth. HHs appear homogenously hyperechoic on US with distinct margins and posterior acoustic enhancement. While cavernous hemangiomas appear as well-defined hypodense lesions on pre-contrast CT images with the same density as the vasculature, one of the most reliable imaging features for diagnosing cavernous hemangiomas is high signal intensity on T2 weighted images. While most HHs are asymptomatic, some patients can present with pain or compressive symptoms with bleeding/rupture being very rare. Kasabach-Merritt syndrome is a rare but life-threatening condition associated with thrombocytopenia and microangiopathic hemolytic anemia. When HHs are symptomatic or in the setting of Kasabach Merritt syndrome, surgery is indicated. Enucleation is an attractive surgical option for HH as it spares normal liver tissue. Most patients experience symptom relief following surgical resection.HHs are very common benign liver lesions. High-quality imaging is imperative to distinguish HHs from other liver lesions. Surgery is generally reserved for patients who present with symptoms such as pain, obstruction, or rarely Kasabach-Merritt syndrome. Surgery can involve either formal resection or, in most instances, simple enucleation. Patients generally have good outcomes following surgery with resolution of their symptoms.© 2022. The Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract.

Background and Aim: To derive lessons from the data of patients who were followed for various periods with the misdiagnosis of liver hemangioma and eventually found to have a malignancy.

To investigate the usefulness of computed tomographic (CT) spectral imaging parameters in differentiating small (≤3 cm) hepatic hemangioma (HH) from small hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), with or without cirrhosis, during the late arterial phase (AP) and portal venous phase (PVP).This prospective study was institutional review board approved, and written informed consent was obtained from all patients. The authors examined 49 patients (39 men, 10 women; 65 lesions) with CT spectral imaging during the AP and the PVP. Twenty-one patients had HH; nine, HCC with cirrhosis; and 19, HCC without cirrhosis. Iodine concentrations were derived from iodine-based material-decomposition CT images and normalized to the iodine concentration in the aorta. The difference in iodine concentration between the AP and PVP (ie, iodine concentration difference [ICD]) and the lesion-to-normal parenchyma ratio (LNR) were calculated. Two readers qualitatively assessed lesion types on the basis of conventional CT characteristics. Sensitivity and specificity were compared between the qualitative and quantitative studies. The two-sample t test was performed to compare quantitative parameters between HH and HCC.Normalized iodine concentrations (NICs) and LNRs in patients with HH differed significantly from those in patients with HCC and cirrhosis and those in patients with HCC without cirrhosis: Mean NICs were 0.47 mg/mL ± 0.24 (standard deviation) versus 0.23 mg/mL ± 0.10 and 0.23 mg/mL ± 0.08, respectively, during the AP and 0.83 mg/mL ± 0.38 versus 0.47 mg/mL ± 0.86 and 0.52 mg/mL ± 0.11, respectively, during the PVP. Mean LNRs were 5.87 ± 3.36 versus 2.56 ± 1.10 and 2.29 ± 0.87, respectively, during the AP and 2.01 ± 1.33 versus 0.96 ± 0.16 and 0.93 ± 0.26, respectively, during the PVP. The mean ICD for the HH group (1.37 mg/mL ± 0.84) was significantly higher than the mean ICDs for the HCC-cirrhosis (0.33 mg/mL ± 0.29) (P <.001) and HCC-no cirrhosis (0.82 mg/mL ± 0.99) (P =.03) groups. The combination of NIC and LNR had higher sensitivity and specificity compared with those of conventional qualitative CT image analysis during individual and combined phases.Use of spectral CT with fast tube voltage switching may increase the sensitivity for differentiating small hemangiomas from small HCCs in two-phase scanning.RSNA, 2011

Differentiating small hepatic metastases from hemangiomas can be challenging on visual assessment.

The surgical indications for liver hemangioma remain unclear.

此文回顾性分析了1例51岁男性罕见特大肝血管瘤病人的临床特点及治疗过程。该例病人入院完善CT三维重建检查后行肝S1、S2、S3、S4、S5和部分S6段切除+胆囊切除术+肝S7段血管瘤硬化剂注射治疗,术后未出现并发症,恢复良好,于术后第8天出院。术后3个月复查肝脏CT未见复发。此类病人罕见,手术难度大,术后并发症凶险,术前需充分评估病人全身状态、肿瘤位置及与肝内血管及胆管的解剖关系,准确评估剩余肝脏体积及肝脏储备功能是手术成功的关键。