Neonatal Hepatic Hemangioendothelioma: A Single Institute Experience

Abstract

Background: Hepatic hemagioendothelioma in neonatal period was rarely seen, so standard treatment does not established yet. Methods: A retrospective analysis of patients with neonatal hepatic hemangioendothelio-ma at Ajou University Hospital between 2001 and 2016 was performed. Results: Six patients with hepatic hemangioendothelioma in neonatal period were founded. Mean age at diagnosis was 6.1 days (range, 1-26 days). Three patients have no symptoms: diagnostic approach was prenatal ultrasonography in 2 patients, and in-cidental abnormal ultrasonographic findings in 1 patient, but the other 3 patients have hepatomegaly and/or congestive heart failure. Three patients were observed without treatment and the other 3 patients received medical and/or surgical treatment. Three patients of those who did not receive treatment became spontaneous regression. Of the other 3 patients, 1 patient achieved complete tumor disappearance after surgical re-section, another 1 patient achieved to decrease tumor size with interferon-alpha treat-ment for 6 months and then had complete resolution of tumor after partial liver lobec-tomy, and other 1 patient who received hepatic artery embolization decreased in the size and number of lesions and then regressed gradually. Conclusion: Asymptomatic patients with neonatal hepatic hemangioendothelioma could have spontaneous remission, but patients with symptoms such as hepatomegaly with congestive heart failure or thrombocytopenia needed to be applied with medical and/or surgical treatment.