A Very Rare Venous Anomaly in a Living Liver Donor: Left Hepatic Venous Connection to the Right Atrium

Abstract

In humans, three main hepatic veins drain the liver into the inferior vena cava below the diaphragm. This report represents the first living donor liver that had a rare anatomic variation of the left hepatic vein draining directly to the right atrium, which was detected preoperatively by routine investigations of the living donor transplantation. This type of anomaly may present potentially fatal challanges to a donor operation if not detected preoperatively, especially when the left lobe is the choice for explantation. © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.