Is the absence of Right Hepatic Vein opening into Inferior Vena Cava a contraindication for right lobe liver donation in Living Donor Liver Transplantation? Common hepatic venous trunk-A rare hepatic vein anomaly: A case report and review.

INTRODUCTION

In majority of the living liver donors, the left and the middle hepatic veins form a common trunk and the right hepatic vein drains by a separate trunk into the IVC forming two ostial openings.

PRESENTATION OF CASE

This report presents a rare challenge to the operating surgeon in which the three major hepatic veins form a common trunk and drain into the IVC through a single ostial opening. It was detected preoperatively by the routine donor imaging studies.

DISCUSSION

To our knowledge, this type of rare venous anatomy in the setting of living donor liver transplantation has not been described in the literature before. A few studies have described similar anatomy in the cadaveric liver specimen of some particular ethnicity.

CONCLUSION

This type of a rare anomaly poses challenge to the donor operation and requires a sound expertise on the knowledge of hepatic venous anatomy to perform the donor hepatectomy with the appropriate maneuvering.