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. 2016 Jan;41(1):25-32.
doi: 10.1007/s00261-015-0605-7.

Prevalence of benign focal liver lesions: ultrasound investigation of 45,319 hospital patients

Tanja Eva-Maria Kaltenbach  1 , Phillip Engler  1 , Wolfgang Kratzer  2   3 , Suemeyra Oeztuerk  1 , Thomas Seufferlein  1 , Mark Martin Haenle  1 , Tilmann Graeter  4
Affiliations

Prevalence of benign focal liver lesions: ultrasound investigation of 45,319 hospital patients

Tanja Eva-Maria Kaltenbach et al. Abdom Radiol (NY). 2016 Jan.

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of the study was to determine the sonographic prevalence of benign focal liver lesions on the basis of a population of hospital patients.

Methods: The ultrasound results in a population of (n = 45,319) hospital patients over a period of 10 years were examined retrospectively and evaluated for the diagnosis of benign focal liver lesions [hepatic cysts, hepatic hemangioma, focal nodular hyperplasia (FNH), hepatic adenoma, and focal fatty sparing]. Results that were incomplete or ambiguous were excluded from this study.

Results: At least one of the lesions to be investigated was diagnosed in 15.1% (n = 6839) of the patients of the total population. The most commonly recorded lesion, with a total prevalence of 6.3% (n = 2839), was focal fatty sparing, followed by hepatic cysts with 5.8% (n = 2631). The prevalence of hepatic hemangioma was 3.3% (n = 1640), while that of FNH was 0.2% (n = 81) and that of hepatic adenoma was 0.04% (n = 19). An association between the occurrence of benign focal liver lesions and age was observed.

Conclusions: The calculated prevalence of benign focal liver lesions shows that on the fortuitous discovery of space-occupying lesions of the liver, first consideration should be given to focal fatty sparing, simple hepatic cysts and hemangiomas. The finding of a FNH or an adenoma is rarely a random discovery.

Keywords: Focal fatty sparing; Focal liver lesions; Focal nodular hyperplasia; Hepatic adenoma; Hepatic cysts; Hepatic hemangioma.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Focal fatty sparing
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Cyst
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Hemangioma
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Focal nodular hyperplasia
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Adenoma
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