Editorial Book

Book Title: Research Trends in Medical Sciences

OPEN ACCESS | Published on : 19-Aug-2026 | Pages: 1-8 | Doi : 10.37446/edibook262026/1-8

Normal and anatomical variations of the liver correlating with their clinical implications

• Rajani Singh
• Department of Anatomy, Graphic Era Institute of Medical Sciences, Chakrata Road Doolkot 248007 Dehradun, Uttrakhand, India.


• Sanket Dadarao Hiware
• Department of Anatomy, Graphic Era Institute of Medical Sciences, Chakrata Road Doolkot 248007 Dehradun, Uttrakhand, India.

Abstract

The liver (Liv) is the largest gland of the human body with features of right and left hepatic lobes along with caudate and quadrate lobes. In normal situation, the Liver does not contain any indentation or crater. Moreover, very often it is subjected to developmental anomalies like presence of extra or multiples lobes, presence of multiple fissures in addition to normal fissures, reidels lobe. But the Liver may have different shapes, varied number of fissures, non-development, degeneration, underdevelopment, presence of extra lobes and fissures and oversize of lobe. These anomalies may involve right and left hepatic lobes, caudate and quadrate lobes. The anomalies of the Liver present with variable incidences but are very important as these may lead to misinterpretation of radiographs and also mimic pathology leading to misdiagnosis and mismanagement of hepatic diseases. Hence chapter assumes importance for hepatic surgeons and interventional radiologists. The aim of the chapter is to throw light on the normal and variations of hepatic tissue, correlating with clinical significance so that the Liver disorders may be managed with minimum complications. The literature was scrutinized using online data bases such as google scholar, research gate, pubmed, pubmed central, medline, scielo and cross reference. Text books of Anatomy were also consulted. The literature was compiled, interpreted and presented as chapter.

Keywords

Liver, gland, caudate lobe, quadrate lobe, variations, hepatic tissue

References

Abdalla, E. K., Vauthey, J. N., et al. (2002). The caudate lobe of the liver: Implications of embryology and anatomy for surgery. Surgical Oncology Clinics of North America, 11, 835–848. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1055-3207(02)00035-2

Arora, N. K., Srivastava, S., et al. (2016). Morphometric study of caudate lobe of liver. Annals of International Medical and Dental Research, 2, 275–279.

Auh, Y., Rosen, A., et al. (1984). CT of the papillary process of the caudate lobe of the liver. American Journal of Roentgenology, 142, 535–538. https://doi.org/10.2214/AJR.142.3.535

Chaudhari, H. J., Ravat, M. K., et al. (2017). Morphological study of human liver and its surgical importance. Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research, 11(6), AC09–AC12. https://doi.org/10.7860/JCDR/2017/24467.10020

Chaurasia, B. D. (2015). BD Chaurasia's human anatomy: Lower limb, abdomen and pelvis (Vol. 2, 6th ed., pp. 304–305). CBS Publishers & Distributors Pvt. Ltd.

Chavan, N., & Wabale, R. (2014). Morphological study of caudate lobe of liver. Indian Journal of Basic and Applied Medical Research, 3, 204–211.

Chin, J., O'Toole, P., et al. (2018). Hepatic morphology: Variations and its clinical importance. European Journal of Anatomy, 22, 195–201.

Covanţev, S. (2013). Accessory liver fissures and their clinical significance. University Days Conference Proceedings, 14, 35–39. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.1.3824.2648

Custer, J. R., & Shafer, R. B. (1975). Changes in liver scan following splenectomy. Journal of Nuclear Medicine, 16, 194–195.

Daver, G. B., Bakhshi, G. D., et al. (2005). Bifid liver in a patient with diaphragmatic hernia. Indian Journal of Gastroenterology, 24, 27–28.

Joshi, S. D., Joshi, S. S., et al. (2009). Some interesting observations on the surface features of the liver and their clinical implications. Singapore Medical Journal, 50(7), 715–719.

Kudo, M. (2000). Riedel's lobe of the liver and its clinical implication. Internal Medicine, 39, 87–88. https://doi.org/10.2169/internalmedicine.39.87

Lafortune, M., Matricardi, L., Denys, A., et al. (1998). Segment 4 (the quadrate lobe): A barometer of cirrhotic liver disease at US. Radiology, 206, 157–160. https://doi.org/10.1148/radiology.206.1.9423666

Macchi, V., Feltrin, G., et al. (2003). Diaphragmatic sulci and portal fissures. Journal of Anatomy, 202, 303–308. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1469-7580.2003.00160.x

Mehare, T., Bekele, A., et al. (2017). Assessment of morphological variations and its specific location on the surface of adult human liver in Ethiopian cadavers. International Journal of Medical Research & Health Sciences, 6, 121–129.

Muktyaz, H., Nema, U., et al. (2013). Anatomical study of accessory sulci of liver and its clinical significance in North Indian population. International Journal of Medical and Health Sciences, 2, 224–229.

Nagato, A. C., Silva, A. S., et al. (2011). Quantitative and morphological analyses of different types of human liver. Journal of Morphological Sciences, 28, 275–279.

Nayak, S. B., Kumar, N., et al. (2013). A mini accessory liver lobe in the fissure for ligamentum teres and its clinical significance: A case report. Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research, 7, 2573–2574. https://doi.org/10.7860/JCDR/2013/6114.3615

Patil, S., Sethi, M., et al. (2014). Morphological study of human liver and its surgical importance. International Journal of Anatomy and Research, 2, 310–314.

Ravikiran, H. R., & Ashwini, N. S. (2024). Morphological variations of liver in humans and its surgical relevance. International Journal of Recent Scientific Research, 12(2), 40995–40999. http://dx.doi.org/10.24327/ijrsr.2021.1202.5808

Reddy, N., Joshi, S. S., et al. (2017). Morphology of caudate and quadrate lobes of liver. Journal of Evolution of Medical and Dental Sciences, 6, 897–901. https://doi.org/10.14260/jemds/2017/192

Sagoo, M. G., Aland, C., et al. (2018). Morphology and morphometry of the caudate lobe of the liver in two populations. Anatomical Science International, 93, 48–57.

Sambhav, K., Krishna, H., Dixit, S., et al. (2023). Morphological study of variations of the human cadaveric liver and its clinical implications. Cureus, 15(2), e35507. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.35507

Sangeeta, M., Varalakshmi, K. L., et al. (2014). Study of the morphometry of the liver. Indian Journal of Applied Research, 4, 441–443. https://doi.org/10.36106/IJAR

Sarala, H. S., Jyothilakshmi, T. K., et al. (2015). Morphological variations of caudate lobe of the liver and their clinical implications. International Journal of Anatomy and Research, 3, 980–983. https://doi.org/10.16965/ijar.2015.119

Singh, H. R., & Rabi, S. (2019). Study of morphological variations of liver in human. Translational Research in Anatomy, 14, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tria.2018.11.004

Srimani, P., & Saha, A. (2020). Liver morphology: Anatomical study about the outer aspects. Surgical and Radiologic Anatomy, 42, 1425–1434. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-020-02485-9

Standring, S. (2021). Gray's anatomy: The anatomical basis of clinical practice (42nd ed., pp. 1205–1207). Elsevier.

Stattaus, J., Kühl, H., et al. (2008). Diagnosis of an accessory liver lobe established by magnetic resonance imaging-guided core biopsy. Zeitschrift für Gastroenterologie, 46, 351–354. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-2007-963526

Swathi, P. C. (2020). Clinically significant observations of hepatic lobe morphology in adult human cadavers. Indian Journal of Clinical Anatomy and Physiology, 7, 188–194. https://doi.org/10.18231/j.ijcap.2020.038

Vinnakota, S., & Jayasree, N. (2013). A new insight into the morphology of the human liver: A cadaveric study. ISRN Anatomy, 2013, Article 689564. https://doi.org/10.5402/2013/689564

Yadav, G. D., & Deka, P. (2008). Accessory sulcus of the liver: An incidental laparotomy finding. Indian Journal of Surgery, 70, 92–93. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12262-008-0025-9.