title: Anatomy of the right liver lobe: a surgical analysis in 124 consecutive living donors.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Understanding anatomic variations of the right lobe is fundamental in adult to adult living donor liver transplantation.
  
  
  METHODS
  We analysed anatomy in 124 right liver (RL) donors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Portal vein: normal anatomy was found in 85.5% donors. In 14.5% the main right portal vein (PV) was absent. Hepatic artery: single arterial inflow of the RL was identified in 96% of donors. In 4% two arterial stumps were found. Bile duct: classic anatomy was identified in 50.8% of donors; 9.7% had a trifurcation of the common bile duct; in 7.2% the right anterior and in 15.3% the right posterior bile duct opened into the left bile duct; one segmental bile duct opened directly into the common bile duct in 12.1% and two segmental bile ducts in 4.8%. Hepatic veins (HV): in 74.3% the right HV was the single outflow; in 24.2% significant accessory HV (>5 mm) were preserved, in 2.4% the middle HV was harvested. We found that patients with PV variations had high incidence of multiple bile ducts (88.9%) while patients with single right PV had lower incidence (42.4%) (p = 0.00026).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  While anatomic variations in the RL donor were common, no contraindication to RL harvesting was noted in this study.
authors.affiliation: Liver Transplant Unit, Edouard Herriot Hospital, Lyon, France. serban.bageacu@chu-st-etienne.fr
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bageacu
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Abdelaal
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ficarelli
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Elmeteini
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Boillot
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001652:Bile Ducts / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000601:surgery*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006498:Hepatectomy; D006499:Hepatic Artery / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000601:surgery*; D006503:Hepatic Veins / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000098:blood supply / Q000601:surgery*; D016031:Liver Transplantation / Q000379:methods*; D019520:Living Donors; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011169:Portal Vein / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000601:surgery*; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D055815:Young Adult