Hepatic vascular anomalies in nonparasitic cysts of the liver

Vascular abnormalities demonstrated by angiography in 3 patients with nonparasitic liver cyst are described. In two cases of polycystic liver, dilated and mutually anastomosing hepatic vein branches were seen around a cyst as opacified by hepatic venography, and in one case of solitary liver cyst, anastomoses between large portal branches and a right hepatic vein was demonstrated by celiac angiography. These vascular abnormalities most likely represent developmental malformation along with aberrant bile duct formation expressed in the form of cystic liver. To exclude the possibility of these changes being secondary to expansion of the cyst, an angiographic study of excised polycystic liver was carried out, and it was found that cyst enlargement produced displacement and thinning but no anastomosis of the intrahepatic blood vessels.