Acute Abdomen: A Rare Case of Ruptured Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Abstract

Spontaneous ruptures of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are rare. Nevertheless they may lead to difficult decisions in the emergency situation. The acute therapies include conservative treatment, transarterial embolization and surgery. Curative treatment of HCC can be achieved by liver resection solely. The decision-making depends on prognostic patient’s factors, such as hepatic viral infection status, Child-Pugh grade, liver cirrhosis and number of tumors. In this case transarterial embolization was preferable as a bridging therapy prior to further diagnostics and therapy, to lower the perioperative morbidity and mortality. The therapy of these cases needs an interdisciplinary approach to choose the best possible procedure in each case.

Keywords

• Operative treatment
• Hepatocellular carcinoma
• Spontaneous rupture
• Transarterial embolization