Clinical Aspects of Morphological Variations of the Liver

Introduction: Liver is the largest abdominal gland that develops from caudal part of foregut as hepatic diverticulum. Abnormal growth and differentiation of the hepatic tissue leads to accessory lobes and fissures that may misdiagnose the liver diseases. Aim: The present study was focused on the variant morphology of liver like accessory lobes and fissures, hypertrophy, atrophy or absent lobes of the adult human liver and their clinical significance. Materials& Methods: The present study was conducted on 40 human liver specimens that were removed during routine dissection classes to undergraduate medical students. The detailed normal& variant morphology was studied. Results: The anatomical variations like accessory lobes and fissures, liver with pons hepatis, anomalous left lobes, absence of quadrate lobe and enlarged papillary process were identified in this study. Conclusion: The anomalous presentations are due to excessive or defective development of liver tissue. Even though they are asymptomatic they mimic carcinomatous lesions in radiological images and enlarged left lobe may compress the surrounding structures. Clinical knowledge of these anomalous structures is useful to the radiologists in interpreting radiological images and for surgeons during surgical resections of liver.