A Slowly Growing Mass Around a Cirrhotic Liver: Usefulness of the Hepatobiliary Phase in the Diagnosis of Ectopic Liver

Ectopic liver is an unusual condition because gross abnormalities of the liver are exceptional, despite its complex developmental process. The gallbladder (GB) is the most common site of ectopic liver development, but the incidence of ectopic liver is low, at 0.24–0.47% (1, 2). Although the GB is the most frequent site of ectopic liver development, due to the lack of experience with ectopic liver, it is rarely considered as a differential diagnosis when a soft tissue mass arising from the GB wall is encountered. Most ectopic livers are small, and most of them are detected during surgery or autopsy rather than by imaging studies (3). Few recent reports have focused on the radiologic features of ectopic liver (3, 4). Moreover, there are no previous case reviews of ectopic livers that exhibit a tendency to grow during follow up. Here, we present a case of ectopic liver with normal liver parenchyma that was attached to the serosal surface of the GB and grew slowly, which developed in a patient with liver cirrhosis.