title: Idiopathic extensive peliosis hepatis treated with liver transplantation.
abstract: A 50-year-old Danish man, who neither had wasting disease nor was taking steroid-containing drugs, complained of abdominal distension, due to a markedly enlarged liver. Percutaneous needle biopsies were taken from the liver, and the findings gave suspicion of a neoplastic tumor. Because of reduced liver function and treatment-resistant ascites, he underwent liver transplantation without a definite preoperative diagnosis. The resected liver weighed 2900 g, and almost all of the parenchyma was destroyed and replaced by multicystic blood-filled spaces, diagnosed as extensive peliosis hepatis complicating liver cirrhosis. Extensive peliosis with liver cirrhosis is a rare condition. Only two cases, caused by contraceptives and treated by liver transplantation, are reported in the English-language literature. We could find no cause other than alcohol abuse lasting several years in this patient, and classified the present case as idiopathic extensive peliosis hepatis. Although scarce subjective findings and misleading liver biopsies made an exact diagnosis difficult, an orthotopic liver transplantation was the only treatment for such complicated peliosis hepatis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical Gastroenterology and Transplantation, Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Masanobu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hyodo
authors.forename: Anne Mellon
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Mogensen
authors.forename: Peter Nørgaard
authors.initials: PN
authors.lastname: Larsen
authors.forename: Andre
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wettergren
authors.forename: Allan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rasmussen
authors.forename: Preben
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kirkegaard
authors.forename: Yoshikazu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yasuda
authors.forename: Hideo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nagai
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000150:complications; D016031:Liver Transplantation; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010382:Peliosis Hepatis / Q000150:complications / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed