Hepatic epithelioid angiomyolipoma: a malignant potential tumor and literature review

Hepatic epithelioid angiomyolipoma (HEAML) is an extremely rare primary hepatic tumor which is easily misdiagnosed as hepatocellular carcinoma or other tumors before surgery. It is a special kind of angiomyolipoma that is rarely reported in the liver. Patients with HEAML may recurrence or metastasis after surgery. The research on prognosis of the disease is poor due to its malignant potential. The epidemiology, clinical diagnosis, etiology and treatment of the disease remain challenging. It's important to improve the recognition of HEAML. Here, we report a woman who had complained of upper bellyache for 3 months and she was confirmed as primary HEAML by histology and immunohistochemistry after a laparoscopic hepatectomy. The patient had survived well for 1 year since surgery and long-term follow-up was continued till now. Previous studies and our experience suggested that surgical excision is the reasonable treatment of HEAML. Lastly, we have a brief discussion about HEAML and review the relevant literature.