Mesenchymal hamartoma of the liver in adults--case report

Mesenchymal hamartoma of the liver is a benign lesion presenting as an enlarging abdominal mass in children less than 2 years of age. Fewer than 5% cases are present in individuals over 5 years of age, and this lesion is extremely rare in adults. It may affect the left or the right lobe of liver as a cystic or solid mass or both components may be present. The pathogenesis remains incompletely understood, but these lesions have generally been considered to represent a development abnormality in the bile duct plate formation.

In this report, we present a case of a 44-year-old man who was surgically treated at the Department of Abdominal, Endocrine and Transplantation Surgery of the Clinical Center of Vojvodina due to cystic lesion in the liver segment IV that had been verified by computed tomography imaging diagnostics. The patient was sent from a smaller health center with the diagnosis of echinococcosis. After the adequate preparation of the patient, surgical excision ofthe liver cystic lesion was done. Once a thorough histological examination had been performed, the diagnosis of mesenchymal hamartoma was made.

Mesenchymal hamartoma of the liver is a benign tumor resulting from abnormal, intra-uterine development of bile ducts and has a delayed clinical manifestation, thus this lesion appears to be related to the processes of maturation. It is potentially pre-malignant lesion presenting as a solid and/or cystic neoplasm. Symptoms, laboratory results and radiographic imaging are nonspecific and inconclusive, so surgical excision of the whole lesion is the imperative for the definitive diagnosis.