[A case of metastatic liver cell carcinoma in the abdominal wall corresponding to the location of a buried arterial catheter].

The authors encountered a case of primary liver cell carcinoma which metastasized to the abdominal wall at a site corresponding to the location of an indwelling catheter for intra-arterial injections. The patient was a 54-year-old male with primary liver cell carcinoma in the posterior inferior segment. Because of a subsegmentectomy of the liver on September 25, 1986 and postoperative chemotherapy, a catheter for intra-arterial injections was inserted from the right gastroepiploic artery. After anticancer agents were administered postoperatively via this catheter, the same catheter was implanted subcutaneously before discharge. From the latter part of June 1987 after discharge, there was an increase in alpha FP and a subcutaneous tumor, which gradually increased in size, was found at a site in the right hypochondrium corresponding to the location of the arterial catheter. Angiography revealed a tumor nourished by the right 10th intercostal artery, and an operation was performed to remove this tumor. From a pathological examination, this case was diagnosed as metastatic liver cell carcinoma (metastasis to the abdominal wall). The tumor was not connected with the liver and matched the site in the abdominal wall where the arterial catheter was embedded. Therefore, implantation of a catheter cannot be ruled out as a mode of metastasis other than the blood stream.