Spontaneous rupture of primary hepatocellular carcinoma in Zaria, Nigeria.

Primary hepatocellular carcinoma more often presents acutely with rupture and haemoperitoneum in Africa and Asia where the tumour is more common than in the Western world. This detailed report on 35 patients with ruptured primary hepatocellular carcinoma describes the clinical features of this phenomenon in the savannah zone of Northern Nigeria. A third of the patients arrived in the hospital in hypovolaemic shock and although haemostasis was achieved by wedge excision and suture in most cases, 16 (46%) of the patients died in hospital.