Acute pulmonary embolism: a rare complication of a large non-parasitic hepatic cyst.

A 56-year-old patient with a non-parasitic hepatic cyst developed acute dyspnoea. Pulmonary embolism was diagnosed. Bleeding into the hepatic cyst, leading to its enlargement and compression of the inferior vena cava, was the only likely cause of the pulmonary embolism. This complication of a non-parasitic liver cyst has not been reported previously. The patient was treated with heparin. Surgical evacuation of the cyst using the 'fenestration' technique was also performed. There was no recurrent pulmonary embolism or hepatic cyst during a 1-year follow-up period.