Multiple hepatic hemangiomas in a Nigerian man

Abstract

Hepatic hemangiomas are benign tumors of the liver which are often found incidentally. We present a 34-years-old man with a two-month history of upper abdominal pain and incidental finding of multiple hepatic masses. The patient sought medical attention at several healthcare facilities where he posed a diagnostic dilemma before he was referred to us. Computed tomographic scan revealed four hypodense hepatic nodules of varying sizes. The nodules demonstrated peripheral enhancement with progressive centripetal filling till they were totally filled during the delayed phase. Abdominal ultrasonography confirmed the four hepatic lesions. The largest lesion was in the left lobe measuring 73×72 mm while the smallest was in the right lobe (24×20 mm). All the masses demonstrated increased vascularity on color Doppler imaging. The paucity of reported cases of hepatic hemangioma in Nigeria, the multiplicity of the tumor and the giant size of one of them make this case remarkable and reportable.