Primary leiomyoma of the liver: accurate preoperative diagnosis on liver biopsy

Primary leiomyoma of the liver is an exceptionally rare tumour in non-immunocompromised patients. Preoperative diagnosis of the lesion is difficult as complete imaging of this type of lesion is scarcely defined and preoperative biopsy was not the practice in previously reported cases. We report a vo...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMJ case reports 2009, Vol.2009 (mar23 1), p.bcr0920080898-bcr0920080898
Main Authors: Sousa, Helena T, Portela, Francisco, Semedo, Luis, Furtado, Emanuel, Marinho, Carol, Cipriano, Maria A, Leitão, Maximino C
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adrenal glands
Biopsy
Cancer
Colonoscopy
Endoscopy
Europe (West)
Female
Fibroids
Liver
Magnetic resonance imaging
Rare Disease
Smooth muscle
Surgery
Tomography
Tumors
White
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Primary leiomyoma of the liver is an exceptionally rare tumour in non-immunocompromised patients. Preoperative diagnosis of the lesion is difficult as complete imaging of this type of lesion is scarcely defined and preoperative biopsy was not the practice in previously reported cases. We report a voluminous primary leiomyoma of the liver occurring in a healthy middle-aged woman where a preoperative diagnosis was accurately achieved on biopsy. Because of its size, surgery was undertaken for exclusion of malignancy. A 16-month uneventful follow-up has been completed. We discuss the advantage of a preoperative diagnosis and propose that an imaging-guided liver biopsy should be undertaken, provided malignancy features are absent. This could prevent liver surgery merely for diagnostic purposes. Finally, we report imaging features that have not been previously described, namely on magnetic resonance imaging, which may provide an insight about the nature of this particular lesion and, advantageously, contribute toward a non-invasive diagnosis.
ISSN:1757-790X
1757-790X
DOI:10.1136/bcr.09.2008.0898