Hepatic adenoma is a rare benign tumor that is linked to women who have a history of taking oral contraceptives for long periods of time. The annual incidence rate is three to four per hundred thousand women. Hepatic adenoma can regress or completely disappear following withdrawal of oral contraceptives or hormonal therapy. Men who take androgens are also at risk for getting hepatic adenoma. Von Gierke's disease is where glucose is continually stored within hepatocytes.
Hepatic adenoma creates an increase in vascularity which can result in bleeding episodes.
Normally hepatic adenoma consists of a typical hepatocytes containing areas of bile stasis and focal hemorrhage or necrosis. It does not contain bile ducts or Kupffer cells. Patients presenting with hepatic adenoma are usually asymptomatic until the growth of a tumor produces an abdominal mass or hemorrhage. The patient or physician feels a mass in the right upper quadrant. Severe RUQ pain can be the result of bleeding or infarction within the lesion.