SOLITARY NON-PARASITIC CYSTS OF THE LIVER

SIR,-Although simple non-parasitic single eysts of the liver are very rare, there is, at any rate, one more case on record than the six mentioned by Mr. Bland-Sutton in his paper In the BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL. After reading Mr. Doran's paper on the subject some years ago, I briefly recorded in the Lancet (November 14th, 1903) a case which had been under my own care. This also was in an elderly woman. The cyst was the size of an orange, and caused a visible swelling in the upper abdomen which resembled a distended gall bladder. It was a thin-walled cyst, containing clear straw-coloured fluid, and did not in the least resemble hydatid cyst. That it was not a distended gall bladder was proved by the fact that on its under surface was a layer of liver tissue. This case did very well as the result of drainage. All discharge had ceased eighteen days after the operation, and twelve days later there was only a spot of granulation tissue where the tube had been. When seen again, nearly five months after the operation, there was no sign of refilling of the cyst.-I am, etc., Bristol, Nov. 6th. CHARLES A. MORTON.