Intrahepatic splenosis mimicking liver cancer: report of a case and review of literature.

Abstract

Intrahepatic splenosis is a rare situation occurred after traumatic splenic rupture or splenectomy. We report a 33 year old man with multiple isolated liver masses indistinguishable from primary and metastatic liver tumor by standard evaluation. The man underwent a splenectomy due to trauma at the age of three so that the hepatic splenosis was suspected. The final fine-needle biopsy pathological examination proved the diagnosis of intrahepatic splenosis. The importance of suspicion for this diagnosis should be highlighted when tumor-like lesions disclosed on imaging occurs in a patient with a splenic injury in the past. (99m)Tc labelled heat-denatured erythrocyte scintigraphy can be helpful to the diagnosis since it may avoid the performance of biopsies or surgical resections.