A different experience of hepatic adenoma in Taiwan with emphasis on clinical manifestations and ultrasonographic features

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Hepatic adenoma is a rare benign hepatic tumor and it is d ifficult to differentiate it from other focal hepatic tumors. Ultrasonograp hy has become the choice of methods to detect focal hepatic lesions. The st udy aims at analyzing ultrasonographic features of hepatic adenoma. METHODOLOGY: A total of 8 patients with pathologically proven hepatic adeno ma were studied retrospectively during an 8-year period. The ultrasound sca nners used were Toshiba SSA-100A, Toshiba SSA-240 and Aloka 630. The ultras onographic features and clinical data were analyzed. RESULTS: There were 7 males and 1 female. The mean age was 50 years. Of the 8 cases, 2 symptomatic cases had a tumor larger than 10cm. The remaining 6 cases were asymptomatic and had tumors smaller than 5cm. The echogenicity was variable in these tumors. An irregular sonolucent was only noted in a 1 5cm tumor and was histologically proven to be internal bleeding. All the tu mors were well-defined, however, a hypoechoic rim was obvious only in the i soechoic and hyperechoic tumors. CONCLUSIONS: Ultrasonographic features of some hepatic adenomas are differe nt from those of hepatocellular carcinomas and hemangiomas, although the di fferential diagnosis cannot be made in small hypoechoic tumors. When ultras onography is used more widely, more asymptomatic patients with small-sized hepatic adenoma will be detected, even in male subjects. The concept about the pathogenesis of hepatic adenomas may be changed.