Hepatic Alveolar Hydatid Cyst: A Brief Review of Published Cases from Iran in the Last 20 Years

CONTEXT Echinococcus multilocularis is the cause of alveolar hydatid disease, which most commonly involves the liver in more than 90% of cases. This disease is endemic in northern Iran. However, there are very few published cases from Iran. In this article, we will review all of the published cases of hepatic alveolar echinococcosis from Iran regarding all aspects, including clinical, paraclinical, and treatment protocols. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION In this brief review, the published cases of hepatic Alveolar Echinococcosis (AE) from Iran were retrieved for review via a search in PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, IranMedex, scientific information database (SID), Magiran, and Irandoc (1995 - 2015) using the keywords Echinococcus multilocularis and Iran, Alveolar hydatid cyst and Iran, liver and Alveolar hydatid cyst and Iran, and Hepatic alveolar hydatid cyst and Iran. The following inclusion criteria were employed: 1, articles must be written in English or Farsi; 2, articles must have been published between 1995 and 2015; 3) cases must have been confirmed by pathological diagnosis. RESULTS There were 24 published cases of liver-involved alveolar hydatid cyst from Iran. The disease was more common in young- to middle-aged women in northeast Iran. The most common presenting signs and symptoms were abdominal pain with hepatomegaly and liver mass. Most of the patients were treated by surgery and albendazole. The few unresectable liver masses were treated by medical therapy. No liver transplantation for this disease was reported from Iran. CONCLUSIONS Hepatic alveolar hydatid cyst should be considered one of the important differential diagnoses of liver masses, especially in endemic areas of the world.