Abstract
Eight hundred Jordanians with liver enlargement were studied: 369 (46%) were males and 431 (54%) females. Ages ranged between 13 and 85 years, with a mean of 47·4%: 766 cases demonstrated a single pathological process while 34 cases showed two or more processes.
The most significant findings were: congestion secondary to cardiac failure in 323 cases (38·5%); inflammatory and parasitic processes in 192 cases (22·9%), including acute hepatitis (81 cases), hydatid cyst (63 cases), chronic hepatitis (27 cases), liver abscess (19 cases), brucellosis (one case) and malaria (one case); malignancy in 164 cases (19·6%); liver cirrhosis in 80 cases (9·5%); fatty metamorphosis in 47 cases (5·6%); metabolic and genetic disease in 11 cases (1·3%); miscellaneous conditions in nine cases (1·1%); and 15 apparently normal individuals (1·8%).
Cardiac failure was the most frequent cause of hepatomegaly in this sample of Jordanians. Inflammatory processes were the second major cause, followed by malignancy and cirrhosis of the liver.