1984 Volume 25 Issue 12 Pages 1605-1611
A 71-year-old male was admitted with complaints of subcutaneous purpura and right hypochondrial pain. He had an episode of being injected with Thorotrast for his war wound in 1939. Intraperitoneal bleeding and disseminated intravascular coagulopathy (DIC) were seen on admission.
Abdominal ultrasonography (US), computed tomography (CT), liver scintigraphy and right heaptic arteriography revealed two tumors in the liver, one is in the right lobe and the other is inthe medial segment of the left lobe. The finding of US shows a mesh-like or honeycomb-like pattern and the angiogram shows a cotton wool like appearance in the capillary phase, which is consistent with cavernous hemangioma.
A right hepatectomy was performed and the histological findings of the resected tumor found it to be hemangiosarcoma of the liver, which is very rare.
Our reported case is considered to be the first case in Japan, in which Kasabach-Merritt syndrome occurred based on hemangiosarcoma of the liver.
