The postoperative appearance of the liver on ultrasonography following hydatid cyst surgery.

The postoperative ultrasound pattern in 33 patients with previous surgery for unilocular hydatid disease of the liver was investigated. Each patient was submitted to liver scanning with 99mTc pertecnate, as well as to real time ultrasound examination. The patients were divided into three groups according to the type of surgery performed, namely; omentopexy, introflexion and omentoplexy with introflexion. Postoperative liver scans revealed defects similar to those detected during initial diagnosis in 88% of the patients, regardless of the surgical procedure performed. On the contrary, ultrasonography gave separate specific patterns for each surgical procedure.