[Laparoscopic surgical treatment of polycystic liver: a case report]

The preoperative diagnosis of polycystic liver is easily obtainable by ultrasound, while computed tomography is more sensitive for making the differential diagnosis versus other hepatic lesions. This report describes a case of polycystic liver with mass-related symptoms. A laparoscopic fenestration of the larger and superficial cysts was performed. At a three-years follow-up neither postoperative complications nor recurrent episodes were observed. A number of studies have shown that the rates of cyst and symptom recurrence are 9% and 4.5%, respectively, and that the reduction of liver volume is 12.5%. in our opinion the choice of adequate treatment must be based on an accurate evaluation of the patient's clinical aspects and on tthe characteristics of cystic lesions, such as number, size and location. In conclusion, laparoscopic fenestration of liver cysts is a safe, effective procedure for obtaining excellent outcomes in terms of absence of recurrence, as well as being a more sparing approach.