Pauleau Ghislain, Sandoz Baptiste, Thollon Lionel, Serre Thierry, Brunet Christian
Department of Digestive Surgery, Laveran Military Hospital, Blvd. Laveran, BP 50, 13013 Marseille, France.
Surg Radiol Anat. 2010 Oct;32(8):767-75. doi: 10.1007/s00276-010-0675-8. Epub 2010 May 12.
The major purpose of this retrospective study on 25 CT scans of child liver aged from 2 to 13 years was to investigate the growth, morphologic variations and modifications of the liver position as a function of the children age. The objective was to characterize the 3D geometry of the child liver, which is still unknown.
3D reconstruction of child liver was performed using the Mimics(®) software. Measurements of volumes (total liver and right lobe), distances between anatomic reference points and angles were performed. The liver position was calculated with respect to the 11th thoracic vertebra.
The liver shows a harmonious volume growth between the right and the left lobes, but a disharmonious one for the measurements in relation to the falciform ligament. The liver position, with respect to the vertebral column, in the peritoneal cavity was unchanged during the liver growth.
The obtained results from this preliminary work give a description of the child liver during the growth and are of interest for the numerical modeling.
