Diagnosis of a Liver Lymphangioma Using Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasonography (CEUS): Single Case Report

Background and Clinical Significance: CEUS enhances the visualization of vascular patterns within liver lesions, enabling differentiation between benign and malignant lesions, including hemangiomas, focal nodular hyperplasia, and hepatocellular carcinoma, with high accuracy. Lymphangiomas are rare benign lymphatic-system tumors, with intra-abdominal lymphangiomas accounting for approximately 5% of cases, most of which occur in the pediatric population. Intra-abdominal lymphangiomas commonly occur in multiple localizations due to lymphangiomatosis, but solitary lymphangiomas in adults are rare and easy to be misdiagnosed due to asymptomatic cases or non-specific symptoms. Case Presentation: A 65-year-old male with a history of left nephroadrenalectomy due to clear renal-cell carcinoma and paraaortic lymphadenectomy (staging pT3bN0M0V1R0) presented for a routine contrast-enhanced abdominal computer tomography examination. The scan showed several hypervascular structures that accumulate contrast in the arterial phase in the right liver lobe. Three years later, the patient developed complaints of abdominal pain and night sweats. Multiple MRI and CT examinations were performed, followed by a CEUS and a liver-core biopsy, which supported the diagnosis of hepatic lymphangioma. Conclusions: CEUS may be a more valuable evaluation method for follow-up examination than repeating CT and MRI scans. The real-time diagnostic possibility and tissue-perfusion data provide more profound information about the lesion of interest. Thus, it can be used as a primary diagnostic tool when a biopsy is performed. Although this method is relatively new, it can be applied in clinical settings with great value, and it saves time and resources.