[Giant cavernous hemangioma of the liver. Case report and review of the literature (author's transl)].

The cavernous hemangioma of the liver is frequently seen as small tumor without any symptoms, but only rarely its diameter is more than 4 cm (161 cases in world literature). We can report on an additional patient. The peculiarities in this case were the tumor size, the presence of numerous phleboliths and the contrasting of the tumor taking place mainly from the venous part of the vascular bed of the liver. The main indication for a surgical intervention is the danger of rupture, but disturbances of the coagulation as well as intestinal suppression symptoms have also to be taken into consideration. The intraoperative tactics ought to be a standardised resection of the liver. The cavernous hemangioma must be differentiated from the hemangioendothelium: this usually occurs in children, causes cardiac failure due to a. v. shunts, and responds to conservative therapy (corticosteroids, radio-therapy).