title: Intrahepatic Vascular Anatomy in Rats and Mice--Variations and Surgical Implications.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The intra-hepatic vascular anatomy in rodents, its variations and corresponding supplying and draining territories in respect to the lobar structure of the liver have not been described. We performed a detailed anatomical imaging study in rats and mice to allow for further refinement of experimental surgical approaches.
  
  
  METHODS
  LEWIS-Rats and C57Bl/6N-Mice were subjected to ex-vivo imaging using μCT. The image data were used for semi-automated segmentation to extract the hepatic vascular tree as prerequisite for 3D visualization. The underlying vascular anatomy was reconstructed, analysed and used for determining hepatic vascular territories.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The four major liver lobes have their own lobar portal supply and hepatic drainage territories. In contrast, the paracaval liver is supplied by various small branches from right and caudate portal veins and drains directly into the vena cava. Variations in hepatic vascular anatomy were observed in terms of branching pattern and distance of branches to each other. The portal vein anatomy is more variable than the hepatic vein anatomy. Surgically relevant variations were primarily observed in portal venous supply.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  For the first time the key variations of intrahepatic vascular anatomy in mice and rats and their surgical implications were described. We showed that lobar borders of the liver do not always match vascular territorial borders. These findings are of importance for the design of new surgical procedures and for understanding eventual complications following hepatic surgery.
authors.affiliation: Universitätsklinikum Jena, Klinik für Allgemein-, Viszeral- und Gefäßchirurgie, Experimentelle Transplantationschirurgie, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Constanze
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sänger
authors.affiliation: Fraunhofer Institute for Medical Image Computing MEVIS, Bremen, Germany.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schenk
authors.affiliation: Fraunhofer Institute for Medical Image Computing MEVIS, Bremen, Germany.
authors.forename: Lars Ole
authors.initials: LO
authors.lastname: Schwen
authors.affiliation: Fraunhofer Institute for Medical Image Computing MEVIS, Bremen, Germany.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Universitätsklinikum RHTW Aachen, Department of Experimental Molecular Imaging (ExMI), Aachen, Germany.
authors.forename: Felix
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gremse
authors.affiliation: Universitätsklinikum RHTW Aachen, Department of Experimental Molecular Imaging (ExMI), Aachen, Germany.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zafarnia
authors.affiliation: Universitätsklinikum RHTW Aachen, Department of Experimental Molecular Imaging (ExMI), Aachen, Germany.
authors.forename: Fabian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kiessling
authors.affiliation: Universitätsklinikum Jena, Klinik für Allgemein-, Viszeral- und Gefäßchirurgie, Experimentelle Transplantationschirurgie, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Chichi
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: Universitätsklinikum Jena, Klinik für Allgemein-, Viszeral- und Gefäßchirurgie, Experimentelle Transplantationschirurgie, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Weiwei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Universitätsklinikum Jena, Klinik für Allgemein-, Viszeral- und Gefäßchirurgie, Experimentelle Transplantationschirurgie, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Beate
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Richter
authors.affiliation: Klinikum Chemnitz gGmbH, Institut für Pathologie, Chemnitz, Germany.
authors.forename: Olaf
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Dirsch
authors.affiliation: Universitätsklinikum Jena, Klinik für Allgemein-, Viszeral- und Gefäßchirurgie, Experimentelle Transplantationschirurgie, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Uta
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Dahmen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006499:Hepatic Artery / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000601:surgery; D006503:Hepatic Veins / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000601:surgery; D008099:Liver / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000601:surgery; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000601:surgery; D055806:Microvessels / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000601:surgery; D051381:Rats; D011917:Rats, Inbred Lew / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000601:surgery