Morphological Types of Intraparenchymal Spatial Distribution of Caudate Branches of Portal Hepatic Vein. Study on Corrosion Casts

Abstract

Terminologia Anatomica (1998) homologates the caudate branches (CBr) of the portal hepatic vein (PHV) originating from the transverse portion of the left branch of the PHV. Our previous papers described the presence of CBr originating from other segments of the PHV. We analyzed the types of spatial distribution of CBr of the PHV according to their origin, on a number of 150 corrosion casts. The corrosion casts were made by injecting with plastic (AGO II paste and TECHNOVIT 7143) of the vasculo‐ductal systems, followed by parenchyma corrosion with hydrochloric acid. At the beginning we analyzed the branching modalities of the PHV trunk, finding three different aspects: Type I (modal, 97.33%), PHV forking into the right branch (RBr) and the left branch (LBr); Type II (2%), trifurcation of the PHV into LBr, anterior branch (ABr) and posterior branch (PBr); Type III (0.67%) bifurcation of PHV in LBr and PBr. On the study material we noticed the presence of 390 CBr, between 1‐6/cast. We found three morphological aspects of CBr: elongated (80%), forked (19.49%), in "bouquet" (0.51%). According to their number and origin, we found 23 morphological types of intraparenchymal spatial distribution of CBr of PHV. LBr is the origin of 75.39% CBr. We also found CBr from: RBr, trunk and bifurcation of the PHV, ABr and PBr. Knowledge about the CBr origin from other portions of the PHV than the transverse portion of the LBr is useful when planning and performing surgical approach of caudate lobe parenchyma (Supported by CNMP 41092/2007).