Hepatic adenoma associated with oral contraceptive use: an unusual clinical presentation
H. F. Sears, G. Smith and R. D. Powell
A young woman who had taken contraceptive steroids for many years had the
acute onset of abdominal pain because of central necrosis and hemorrhage
into a hepatic adenoma. She had multiple lesions confined to one lobe of
the liver. Persistent pyrexia and leukocytosis were also prominent clinical
findings. She has had no evidence of recurrence of this problem during the
seven years following right hepatic lobectomy. A review of the anabolic and
contraceptive steroid-associated hepatic neoplasms is presented with
comments directed toward the recognition of the critical clinical sequelae
that can befall the patient with hepatic adenoma. Although all the patients
in the steroid-treated group have tumors with benign and striking
histologic similarity, microscopic evidence of malignant invasion of
surrounding tissue is occassionally noted.