Do I need treatment for hepatic hemangioma?

  Hepatic hemangioma is a relatively common benign tumor of the liver, which is currently considered non-cancerous and ineffective for medication. Clinically, cavernous hemangioma is the most common. Most cases are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic, and are most often found accidentally during routine ultrasound or abdominal surgery during a health checkup. It has a long course, slow growth and good prognosis. Hepatic hemangiomas can develop at any age, but are more common between the ages of 30 and 50 years, with more women than men having hepatic hemangiomas >5 cm. There is no evidence that they are malignant, but they can occasionally be confused with other malignant tumors of the liver, leading to misdiagnosis.  When hemangioma increases to more than 5 cm, abdominal symptoms may appear: 1. Gastrointestinal symptoms, including vague pain and discomfort in the right upper abdomen, as well as loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, belching, post-food distension and saturated indigestion, etc. 2. Compression symptoms, huge hemangioma may push and compress the surrounding tissues and organs, and due to increased health awareness, the number of clinical visits for compression symptoms is decreasing. 3. Rupture and bleeding can cause severe pain in the upper abdomen as well as abdominal bleeding and hemorrhagic shock.  Ultrasound, ultrasonography, enhanced CT and MRI are the main diagnostic methods for hepatic hemangioma.  When a hemangioma is found on the liver, first of all, do not worry too much because hepatic hemangioma is a benign tumor. It can only be dangerous to health if it is too large in size. Liver hemangioma usually grows slowly and there is no need to rush to treat it. If the tumor is less than 5 cm in diameter, no treatment is needed at all, and regular outpatient review is sufficient. Hepatic hemangioma is usually clinically indicated for surgical resection if it is larger than 5 cm; if it cannot be distinguished from liver cancer, etc., without excluding the possibility of malignancy; if it grows fast; if it is located in the liver portal; if it has obvious pressure symptoms, it needs surgical treatment.  Surgical resection of hepatic hemangioma is reliable and safe, and complete resection is the only method that can cure it. With the development of surgical techniques, the incidence of surgery-related complications and mortality rates are now very low. Common surgical procedures include hepatic segmental resection, hemangioma debulking, laparoscopic hepatectomy, hemangioma suturing, and liver transplantation. Hemangiomas located in the marginal, exophytic, and left hepatic outer lobe can be resected laparoscopically for the purpose of less trauma and faster recovery. Interventional treatment among non-surgical treatment methods can be applied in special cases: such as advanced age, systemic complications contraindicating surgery, inoperable giant hemangioma and strong request of patients can choose interventional treatment to inhibit tumor growth, but sometimes multiple treatments are needed and the results are not good.