title: Right gastric venous drainage: angiographic analysis in 100 patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the pattern of right gastric venous drainage by use of digital subtraction angiography.
  
  
  METHODS
  A series of 100 consecutive patients who underwent right gastric arteriography during transcatheter arterial chemoembolization for hepatocellular carcinoma were included in this study. Angiographic findings were retrospectively analyzed with respect to the presence or absence of the right and aberrant gastric veins, multiplicity of draining veins, aberrant right gastric venous drainage sites, and the termination pattern of aberrant right gastric veins (ARGVs). We also compared the relative size of the right and left gastric veins.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 49 patients collectively had 66 ARGVs. The common drainage sites for the ARGVs included the hepatic segment IV (n = 35) and segment I (n = 15). The termination pattern of ARGV could be classified into 4 different types. The most common type was termination as a superficial parenchymal blush formation in small areas without demonstrable portal branches. A statistically significant difference was found for the dominancy of the right gastric vein in gastric venous drainage between the two groups with or without ARGV (p < 0.05, Fisher's exact test). In the group of patients without ARGV (n = 51), the right gastric vein was equal to (n = 9) or larger than (n = 17) the left gastric vein in 26 patients (26 of 51, 51%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The incidence of ARGV is higher than expected with four distinct types in its termination pattern. The right gastric vein may play a dominant role in gastric venous drainage.
authors.affiliation: Division of Intervention, Department of Radiology, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Gyeonggi-do 436-707, Korea.
authors.forename: Nak Jong
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Seong
authors.forename: Jin Wook
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.forename: Hyo-Cheol
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Jae Hyung
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Hwan Jun
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Jae
authors.forename: Sang Bu
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: An
authors.forename: Baik Hwan
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Cho
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015901:Angiography, Digital Subtraction / Q000379:methods*; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000628:therapy; D016461:Chemoembolization, Therapeutic / Q000379:methods; D003287:Contrast Media; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007472:Iohexol / Q000031:analogs & derivatives; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013270:Stomach / Q000098:blood supply*; D014680:Veins
chemical_list: D003287:Contrast Media; D007472:Iohexol; C038192:iopromide