title: Long-term follow up of mesenchymal hamartoma of liver--single center study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Mesenchymal hamartoma of liver (MHL) is a rare liver tumor of childhood. About 200 cases have been reported till now. Most of the work on MHL is limited to case reports and there are not many long term follow-up studies. We present our 20 years of experience with this uncommon entity. This study aims to highlight clinical features, diagnosis and treatment of MHL.
  
  
  METHODS
  All patients with a diagnosis of MHL in last 20 years were included in this retrospective study. The patients were evaluated clinically, radiologically and pathologically.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The total number of patients with a diagnosis of MHL was nine. Mean age of the patients was 19.89 ± 2.75 months. Right lobe was involved in eight patients. The prominent clinical features were distension of abdomen and anorexia. Surgical options used were hepatic lobectomy, wedge resection and enucleation. Histopathology of the specimens showed cysts of variable size with normal hepatocytes, bile ducts and connective tissue stroma. Overall mortality was one (11.11%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  MHL is a benign tumor that can present with various clinical features. It should be differentiated carefully from other liver masses especially malignant ones. The diagnosis can be made with the help of radiology and histopathology. Adequate resection is curative in most of the cases and long-term follow up is satisfactory.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Surgery, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi-221 005, UP, India.
authors.forename: Anand
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pandey
authors.forename: Ajay N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Gangopadhyay
authors.forename: Shiv P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.forename: Vijayendra
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: Dinesh K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.forename: Saroj C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Gopal
authors.forename: Shashikant C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Patne
mesh_terms: D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006222:Hamartoma / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000601:surgery*; D006498:Hepatectomy; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome