Laparoscopic observation of hepatic lobe atrophy.

From the standpoint of diagnostic laparoscopy, the frequency and etiological aspect of atrophy of a lobe of the liver was studied. The frequency of hepatic lobe atrophy was 5.3% among 1,208 laparoscopy cases at our department. Lobe atrophy of the liver can be seen not only in congenital anomaly, atrophic cirrhosis and malformation, as described in the OMED database of digestive endoscopy, but also in some other kinds of liver diseases including chronic hepatitis, idiopathic portal hypertension, primary biliary cirrhosis, drug-induced liver injury, scarred liver, autoimmune hepatitis and also in malignancies of other visceral organs. The disorders most frequently associated with hepatic lobe atrophy were idiopathic portal hypertension, and scarred liver, primary biliary cirrhosis, etc.