Surgical approach in liver hemangiomas with special emphasis on lesion diameter and type of surgery: a retrospective cohort of 69 patients

Abstract

Purpose: Liver hemangioma (LH) being the most common benign tumor of the liver is a rare indication for liver surgery. Indications include symptomatic disease, diagnostic suspicion of malignancy, increase in lesion size, and Kasabach-Merritt syndrome. Surgical treatment mainly consists of enucleation or liver resection (LR). The study aimed to evaluate surgical outcomes in patients with LHs. Methods: In this study, surgical treatment for liver hemangioma in a single center were retrospectively reviewed. Demographics, preoperative and postoperative laboratory values, imaging studies, and follow-up data of patients were collected. Results: The mean age was 51.9±11.0 years and 69.6% were female. Abdominal pain was present preoperatively in 32 (46.4%) cases. Mean lesion diameter was 7.5 (1.2-20) cm. Giant hemangioma was reported in 54 (78.3%) patients. Liver resection (LR) and enucleation were preferred for 37 (53.6%) and 32 (46.4%) patients, respectively. Intraoperative transfusion requirement was more common in enucleation than LRs (78.1% vs. 48.6%, p=0.012). Intraoperative erythrocyte transfusion was more frequently in operations of giant hemangiomas (68.5% vs. 40.0%, p=0.044). Complications were observed more frequently in giant hemangioma group regardless of grades (40.7% vs. 13.3%, p=0.049). Preoperative thrombocytopenia was found more frequent in cases with serious complications (66.7% vs 22.2%, p=0.019). Conclusion: Emerging percutaneous intervention and imaging modalities are expected to decrease number of surgeries for liver hemangiomas. Although enucleation, LR and even liver transplantation are still required for a set of patients. Enucleation and LR have similar outcomes, but transfusions are more common according to the present study. Size of LHs is related with complications and transfusion requirements.