Benign Liver Tumors

Call for Papers

Nowadays, liver lesions are commonly found with various diagnostic modalities. Despite the availability of highly sophisticated tools like ultrasound with or without contrast media and high-resolution CT scan or MRI, a definite diagnosis is not possible in every case, thus making a biopsy mandatory to confirm tumor dignity. A biopsy causes insecurity and anxiety, turning healthy persons into patients, who keep the medical staff busy with their questions. Even in cases with benign lesions like hemangioma/FNH confirmed by radiological diagnosis, patients have resections for various reasons.

Of particular interest are manuscripts that report on the natural history (rupture, bleeding, progression to malignancy, etc.) of benign liver lesions, relevance of different diagnostic options including tissue sampling techniques from FNB to percutaneous true-cut biopsy, transjugular biopsy, open or laparoscopic biopsies. Papers summarizing patient management, including wait-and-see strategies and/or an aggressive approach to secure diagnosis are very welcome. Moreover, papers dealing with criteria for surgical resection, postoperative results, QoL, and long-term outcome naturally also count among the standard topics of interest. The topics to be covered include, but are not limited to:

• Natural history
• Noninvasive diagnosis
• Role of biopsy
• Patient management
• Indication for surgery
• QoL
• Long-term outcome

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/hpb/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/ according to the following timetable:

Lead Guest Editor

• Alfred Königsrainer, Department of General, Visceral, and Transplant Surgery, University Hospital Tübingen, Hoppe-Seyler-Straße 3, 72076 Tübingen, Germany

Guest Editors

• Nigel Heaton, Institute of Liver Studies, King's College Hospital, London SE5 9RS, UK
• Giuliano Testa, Simmons Transplant Institute, Baylor University Medical Center, 3410 Worth Street, Suite 950, Dallas, TX 75246, USA