Minimal invasive surgery for treatment of enlarged symptomatic liver cysts

Abstract

Congenital solitary liver cysts are a common finding, but they are usually asymptomatic; however, symptoms occur in about 16% and then require treatment. Ideally, complete or partial resection of the cyst is the treatment of choice but always implies invasive surgery. We report the case of a 50-year-old woman suffering from a massively enlarged cyst in the left liver lobe. We decided to resect the extraphepatic part of the cyst by laparoscopic surgery. The patient was discharged absolutely asymptomatic 3 days following surgery. We conclude that open resection of symptomatic congenital liver cysts should be replaced by laparoscopic removal when cysts are mostly extrahepatically located. The laparoscopic procedure combines the advantages of minimal invasive surgery with the demand for a radical effective treatment.