A case of porphyria cutanea tarda with hemangioma of the liver.

The clinical incidence of porphyria cutanea tarda is apparently less in Japan than in European countries and the U.S.A.. In the last 7 years, porphyria cutanea tarda was encountered in the dermatologic clinic of Tokai University Hospital at the rate of one in twelve thousand patients with various kinds of skin diseases. This case is the first case in our medical clinic at Tokai University Hospital in the past 7 years, among 2,456 cases of liver diseases in which laparoscopy with needle biopsy of the liver was performed. The physiopathological aspects remain obscure. Unexpectedly, a hemangioma was disclosed under laparoscopic observation but it was clear that the hemangioma had no significant relation to the thrombopenia-hemangioma syndrome in this case.