Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Mar 28, 2015; 21(12): 3755-3758
Published online Mar 28, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i12.3755
Liver transplantation for recurrent posthepatectomy malignant hepatic angiomyolipoma: A case report
Wen-Tao Wang, Zi-Qiang Li, Gui-Hui Zhang, Yuan Guo, Mu-Jian Teng
Wen-Tao Wang, Zi-Qiang Li, Gui-Hui Zhang, Yuan Guo, Mu-Jian Teng, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Shandong Provincial Qianfoshan Hospital, Shandong University, Jinan 250014, Shandong Province, China
Author contributions: Wang WT and Li ZQ contributed equally to this work; Zhang GH conducted the pathologic analysis; Wang WT wrote the manuscript; Li ZQ, Guo Y and Teng MJ revised the manuscript.
Supported by Shandong Province Natural Science Foundation, No. Y2008C09.
Ethics approval: The study was reviewed and approved by Shandong Provincial Qianfoshan Hospital Review Board.
Informed consent: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Yuan Guo, MD, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Shandong Provincial Qianfoshan Hospital, Shandong University, 27 Shanda Nanlu, Jinan 250014, Shandong Province, China. guoyuan@sdhospital.com.cn
Telephone: +86-531-89268149 Fax: +86-531-89268356
Received: October 2, 2014
Peer-review started: October 3, 2014
First decision: October 29, 2014
Revised: November 17, 2014
Accepted: January 16, 2015
Article in press: January 16, 2015
Published online: March 28, 2015
Abstract

Hepatic angiomyolipomas (AMLs) are typically benign tumors containing varying amounts of smooth muscle cells, adipose tissue, and vessels, and are commonly found in the kidney and occasionally in the liver. The preoperative diagnosis of hepatic AML is primarily made from imaging and fine-needle aspiration biopsy results, though limited experience for such diagnoses can result in misdiagnosis. Some uncommon features of hepatic AML have been reported in the literature without an objective or qualitative consensus. As the majority of cases are benign, conservative treatment of AMLs is recommended. However, in rare cases, liver transplantation has been implemented. Only five cases of malignant hepatic AML have been reported. We report a rare case of recurrent posthepatectomy malignant hepatic AML that was misdiagnosed as liver cancer in a 37-year-old woman, which was treated by liver transplantation. The imaging and pathologic findings are presented in order to provide a more concise description to aid in future diagnoses.

Keywords: Angiomyolipoma, Hepatectomy, Malignant, Liver transplantation, Recurrence

Core tip: Hepatic angiomyolipomas (AMLs) are typically benign tumors, with rare reports of malignant cases. Because there is a lack of experience for preoperative diagnosis, hepatic AMLs can easily be misdiagnosed. This case report not only presents some characteristics of hepatic AML and diagnostic indicators of malignancy, but also describes the successful treatment with liver transplantation.