Illustrated Encyclopedia of Human Anatomic Variation: Opus IV: Organ Systems: Digestive System and Spleen
Ronald A. Bergman, PhD
Adel K. Afifi, MD, MS
Ryosuke Miyauchi, MD
Peer Review Status: Internally Peer Reviewed
The liver is not subject to great or frequent deviation from its usual form and relation.
It has been found without any division into lobes. On the other hand, a case has been recorded in which the adult liver was divided into 12 lobes, and similar cases of of excess lobes have been observed.
A detached portion, forming a sort of accessory liver, is occasionally found appended to the left extremity of the gland by a fold of peritoneum containing blood vessels.
Two additional lobes may occur, the lobus posterior, projecting through the epiploic foramen to lie behind the stomach, and the lobus venae cavae, projecting downward along the course of the inferior vena cava.
Occasionally there is an inversion of the liver and the gallbladder may have an unusual position.
At the left extremity of the left lobe of the adult liver a fibrous band (sometimes containing liver substance) of variable length may attach to the diaphragm or posterior abdominal wall. It may extend as far as the spleen. It represents the atrophied remnant of the relatively larger organ in fetal life and is termed appendix fibrosa hepatis or "beaver-tailed" liver.
The fossa venae umbilicalis is often bridged by a piece of liver, the pons hepatis. It unites the quadrate and left lobes, and may vary considerably in size.
The upper surface sometimes shows longitudinal furrows which are occupied, when the organ is in situ, by folds of the diaphragm. The caudate lobe may be small and may be connected to the main portion of the gland by a broad stalk of tissue.
There is a report of an accessory liver adherent to the pancreas. Its bile duct drained into the pancreatic duct system. Other isolated masses of hepatic tissue (hepar succenturiatum) have been found on the wall of the gallbladder, ligamentum teres, spleen, greater omentum, and in a suprarenal gland.
Liver
Liver
Liver
Appendix Fibrosa Hepatis
Beaver-tailed Liver
Accessory Lobe of Liver
Hepatic Pedicle
References
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