Abdominal hemangiomas: a pictorial review of unusual, atypical, and rare types

Abstract

Hemangiomas are a radiologist's dream lesions because they allow a confident diagnosis most of the time. However, within the abdomen, hemangiomas may occur in such atypical locations and can have such unusual features that they cause significant diagnostic dilemma and may end up being excised surgically. The literature is replete with isolated case reports of atypical hemangiomas in the abdominal cavity, and, to our knowledge, so far, there is no comprehensive review. We present, in this article, a pictorial review of a gamut of uncommon hemangiomas and hemangiomatosis syndromes. Knowledge of these rare types can help in limiting diagnostic errors and increase the confidence of radiologists, thus avoiding unnecessary surgeries.