New perspectives on the natural history and growth pattern of hepatic hemangioma in adults: a cohort study / 中华肝胆外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the natural history and growth pattern of hepatic hemangioma in adults.Methods From April 2010 to March 2013, adult patients with hepatic hemangioma who had no prior treatment were enrolled.A routine follow-up was performed to observe the natural history and complications of these lesions.Results 236 patients were enrolled in the study.The median size of the hemangiomas was 4.5 cm (range 0.6 ～ 19.2 cm).During a median follow-up of 48 months (range 3 ～ 266 months), the hemangiomas increased in size in 61.0％ of patients, remained stable in size in 23.7％, decreased in size in 8.5％.The peak growth period was in patients ＜ 30 years age (0.46 ± 0.41 cm/year) and the growth rate decreased significantly after 50 years of age (0.21 ±0.40 cm/year).Hemangiomas with a size ＜2.0 cm had the lowest growth rate (0.16 ± 0.42 cm/year).The peak growth rate was in hemangiomas 8.0 ～ 10.0 cm (0.80 ± 0.62 cm/year) , but for hemangiomas ＞ 10.0 cm, the growth rate was only (0.47 ±0.91)cm per year.Only 9 patients had severe symptoms caused by the hemangioma.No patients presented with hemangioma-related complications.Conclusions The majority of hepatic hemangiomas have the tendency to increase in size but they rarely caused complications.All the hemangiomas could be safely managed by observation, and surgery should only be considered in patients with complications.