title: Intrahepatic splenosis mimicking liver metastasis in a patient with gastric cancer.
abstract: A 54 year old man was referred to our hospital with gastric cancer. The patient had a history of splenectomy and a left nephrectomy as a result of a traffic accident 15 years earlier. The endoscopic findings were advanced gastric cancer at the lower body of the stomach. Abdominal ultrasonography (USG) and magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated a metastatic nodule in the S2 segment of the liver. Eventually, the clinical stage was determined to be cT2cN1cM1 and a radical distal gastrectomy, lateral segmentectomy of the liver were performed. The histopathology findings confirmed the diagnosis of intrahepatic splenosis, omental splenosis. Hepatic splenosis is not rare in patients with a history of splenic trauma or splenectomy. Nevertheless, this is the first report describing a patient with gastric cancer and intrahepatic splenosis that was misinterpreted as a liver metastatic nodule. Intra-operative USG guided fine needle aspiration should be considered to avoid unnecessary liver resections in patients with a suspicious hepatic metastasis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Soonchunhyang University College of Medicine, Bucheon, Korea.
authors.forename: Kyu Chul
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: Gyu Seok
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: Gui Ae
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.forename: Gil Ho
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: Yong Jin
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Moon Soo
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Hee Kyung
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Seong Jin
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Park
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