Giant cavernous hepatic hemangioma: treatment by ligation of the hepatic artery.

We present a case of a giant hepatic hemangioma. We found it at laparotomy and we decided on the course of treatment on the operating table. As right lobectomy was not feasible, we performed ligation of the hepatic artery. The patient made an uneventful recovery. A selective hepatic angiography and a liver scan were performed 8 months postoperatively and they both showed regression of the tumor. The tumor was not demonstrable in the right hepatic artery. The patient is in excellent health 2 years after the operation; the liver is smaller in palpation and the tumor itself is nonpalpable. In this case the ligation of the hepatic artery was a successful therapeutic procedure.