Congenital polycystic disease of the liver may be single or multiple, unilocular or multilocular, localized or diffuse. It is a congenital form of the nonparasitic cysts of the liver, and the linings may be epithelial or fibrous tissue. The content of the individual cysts may be a thin watery fluid,
a- thick viscid semigel, blood, bile, or pus, depending upon the causation, the limngg membrane, and
such secondary features as infection, hemorrhage, or degeneration. Usually, the cysts are asymptomatic
until they are large, increase in size being so gradual that neighboring viscera have time in which to adapt to the expending mass. Generally, they are discovered after the age of 40 years.
The cysts are found more frequently in women than in men, in a tatio of 4 : 1 for all types of cysts. The symptoms or signs are about equally divided between pain or an expanding mass and the effects of pressure on other viscera.
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