title: Bile duct hamartomas: diagnostic problems and treatment.
abstract: Biliary hamartomas are rare, benign malformations of the biliary tract, usually discovered at autopsy or erroneously confused with metastasis or other cystic hepatic lesions. For these reasons it is necessary to consider them in the differential diagnosis. The authors describe three cases of biliary hamartoma in which the definitive diagnosis was obtained only with the use of histologic examination which represents the only means available that can draw conclusions about the real nature of this lesion.
authors.affiliation: Clinica Chirurgica II Department of Surgery and Transplantation, University of Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Principe
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Lugaresi
authors.forename: R C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Lords
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: D'Errico
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Polito
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Gallö
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Bicchierri
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cavallari
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001649:Bile Duct Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000601:surgery*; D001653:Bile Ducts, Intrahepatic / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D001707:Biopsy, Needle; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006222:Hamartoma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D014463:Ultrasonography