Focal nodular hyperplasia of the liver in infancy: a case report Giuseppe De Luca, Marcello Zamparelli * , Carlo Fadda, Antonio Martone Department of Oncology , Santobono-Pausilipon National Children’s Hospital, Napoli 80129, Italy Department of Surgery, Santobono-Pausilipon National Children’s Hospital, Napoli 80129, Italy Abstract Focal nodular hyperplasia of the liver is a benign disorder usually affecting young women. Its treatment in children is traditionally conservative. Because of its rarity in childhood, its differential diagnosis with other hepatic tumors in children and infants is challenging. We present the case of a 7-month-old infant with large focal nodular hyperplasia affecting the whole left liver lobe. Because of progressive enlargement of the lesion and compression of the portal vein, the baby underwent successful surgical treatment. Different therapeutic options and relative indications are discussed. D 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Case report Focal nodular hyperplasia of the liver (FNH) is a benign liver neoplasia, usually affecting young women [1]. It rarely occurs in childhood [2], anecdotally reported in children younger than 2 years, accounting for 0.02% of all tumors and less than 2% of hepatic tumors in pediatrics [2]. We present here a rare case of FNH in an infant who underwent surgical treatment at the age of 13 months. A male infant, 7 months old, came to our attention for abdominal mass. We performed ultrasound (US) and com- puted tomography (CT) scans that revealed a solid inhomo- geneous mass of the left liver lobe measuring 10 Â 8 Â 6.5 cm (Fig. 1). Serum levels of alpha-fetoprotein were normal. 0022-3468/$ – see front matter D 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jpedsurg.2005.11.026 Presented at the 52nd Annual Congress of British Association of Paediatric Surgeons, Dublin, Ireland, July 12-15, 2005. * Corresponding author. Viale Dei Pini 28-8013, Napoli, Italy. Tel.: +39 347 0897148; fax: +39 81 7444821. E-mail address: marcello.zamparelli@tiscali.it (M. Zamparelli). Index words: Focal nodular hyperplasia; Hepatic tumors; Liver mass Fig. 1 Radiographic appearance of the infant’s left liver lobe focal nodular hyperplasia at the preoperative abdominal CT scan. Journal of Pediatric Surgery (2006) 41, 456 – 457 www.elsevier.com/locate/jpedsurg