Abstract
A primary hepatic carcinoid tumor originating in the liver is rare. We report a resected case of primary hepatic carcinoid tumor difficult to diagnose preoperatively. A 53-year-old woman seen for anemia and a stool test positive for occult blood from April 1999 underwent gastrointestinal and colon fiberscopy, but we could not detect the origin of anemia. Abdominal computed tomography (CT) showed a cystic lesion about 25 mm in diameter in the right hepatic lobe. She was admitted for surgery in January 2003 because the tumor began to grow during follow-up. We conducted right anterior subsegmentectomy (S5) with lymph node cleaning and cholecystectomy because ultrasonography, computed tomography, and angiography suggested cystic adenocarcinoma or atypical hepatocellular carcinoma. The resected specimen was a cystic tumor demarcated by the milk-white fibrous membrene with a hemorrhaging lesion. It had a clear margin from the surrounding parenchyma of the liver. Immunohistologically the tumors were positive for synaptophysin staining and negative for other antigens, leading to a diagnosis of carcinoid in microscopic findings of HE staining. She discharged uneventful 12th postoperative day and was followed carefuly during 10 months after surgery.
