1986 Volume 28 Issue 7 Pages 1595-1602_1
We experienced a case of hepatoma of 2-3 mm in size and named hepatoma of a few millimeter in diameter as mm hepatoma, which could not be detected by imaging diagnostic procedures such as echogram, scintigram, abdominal CT, angiogram etc, and could be diagnosed only by peritoneoscopic examination. The patient was a 42-year-old male and had suffered from cirrhosis of the liver. He had been frequently hospitalized because of recurrent attack of hepatic encephalopathy. Peritoneoscopic examination revealed advanced stage of liver cirrhosis (Shimada's code No. 530, 2 e), a yellowish nodule of 2-3 mm in size, which was histologically proven to be hepatocellular carcinoma of clear cell type after aimed biopsy, and a larger nodule of about 1 cm in size. This larger nodule was also biopsied and proven to be not hepatocellular carcinoma. He died of intraperitoneal bleeding after a year and 8 months, when the larger nodule was evidenced to have grown and ruptured, of which histology was well-differentiated (Edmondson II) hepatocellular carcinoma.
