Surgical treatment of advanced alveolar hydatid disease of the liver: a report of five cases.

We report herein the cases of five patients with alveolar hydatid disease (AHD) of the liver who were diagnosed and underwent surgery at the Department of Surgery of Ankara University between 1989 and 1994. In all five patients, the final diagnosis was established by frozen section of the lesion during laparotomy. Lesions of AHD were found only in the liver. Hepatic resections including right lobectomy and segmentectomy were performed in three patients while palliative procedures were carried out in the remaining two patients with unresectable disease. There was no operative mortality, and only one late death occurred 3 years after the hepatic resection. In this paper, we present the clinical and operative findings of these five patients and their outcomes, followed by a review of the surgical treatment of AHD.