Font Size:

Primary Mature Cystic Teratoma of the Liver: Report of a Rare Case

Abstract

Teratomas are nonseminomatous germ cell tumors that arise from abnormal development of pluripotent and embryonal germ cells.1 They usually occur in male and female gonads and are rarely reported in extragonadal sites.2 Most findings are incidental, with imaging characteristics well described in radiological literature. To our knowledge, there have been only a few well documented cases of primary teratomas reported in the liver. Of the 26 reported, only six have occurred in adults. The majority of these cases were in female children below the age of three, mostly arising in the right lobe of the liver.1,3,4 We report a rare case of a mature cystic teratoma in the right lobe of the liver found incidentally in a 57-year-old female while undergoing CT scan of the abdomen and pelvis for abdominal pain related to a rectus hematoma. The diagnosis, pathogenesis, and the potential of malignant degeneration are discussed.