LAPAROSCOPIC DIAGNOSIS OF HEPATIC HEMANGI OMAS AFTER ERRONEOUS INTERPRETATION BY IMAGING TECHNIQUES

Hemangiomas are de most frecuent benign liver tumours. Their clinical relevance is small but they can cause to the patient and/or the physic ian a great worry because can be indistinguisable from hepatic maligna nces. From 1991 to 1994 five patients with liver hemangiomas were diag nosed by laparoscopy after a erroneous and/or contradictory interpreta tion by various imaging techniques. In four cases hemangiomas resemble d metastatic carcinoma of the liver, and in the other patient hemangio ma was interpreted as focal nodular hyperplasia. Diagnosis and treatme nt are discussed.