Prevalence and size of simple hepatic cysts in Taiwan: community- and hospital-based sonographic surveys.

Simple hepatic cysts are now being diagnosed more frequently with the widespread availability of sonographic imaging. Among the general population, the prevalence was reported to be between 0.1 and 2.5%, more so in women, and more often in the right lobe. We conducted this large scale community-based sonographic screening on simple hepatic cysts to explore the age- and sex-specific prevalence in Taiwan. We also conducted another hospital-based study to record the size of simple hepatic cysts. A total of 3,600 subjects in 8 communities were recruited and 156 simple hepatic cysts in 132 study subjects were detected. The overall prevalence is 3.60%. An increasing prevalence with age is demonstrated, ranging from 0.83% from below the age of 40 up to 7.81% of patients over 60 years old. The sizes of 219 simple hepatic cysts of 167 patients out of the hospital-based 5,893 patients were recorded in detail; 53% of cysts were of a diameter of between 1 and 3 cm, and only 7% were larger than 5 cm.