Surgical treatment of benign liver diseases

1. Big picture

Benign liver diseases are common findings on ultrasound, CT, or MRI, but most do not need surgery. The surgical exam question is not “what is every benign liver lesion?” but:

1. Is it truly benign?
2. Is the patient symptomatic or complicated?
3. Is there a risk of rupture, bleeding, infection, compression, or malignant transformation?
4. Can it be treated conservatively, by interventional radiology, laparoscopically, or by liver resection?

The key rule:

Benign liver lesion
      ↓
Confirm diagnosis with high-quality imaging
      ↓
Asymptomatic + confidently benign → observe
Symptomatic / complicated / uncertain / premalignant risk → treat