What Is the Hepatic Duct?

Together with the portal vein and hepatic artery, it constitutes an important conduit to and from the liver. The hepatic duct is a thicker tube formed by the confluence of many interlobular bile ducts, called the hepatic duct.

Together with the portal vein and hepatic artery, it constitutes an important conduit to and from the liver. The hepatic duct is a thicker tube formed by the confluence of many interlobular bile ducts, called the hepatic duct.

Chinese name

Hepatic duct

Foreign name

hepatic duct; ductus hepaticus

Department

Liver Diseases Branch

Hepatic duct overview

The wall of the hepatic duct gradually thickens and consists of the intima, myometrium and adventitia. The hepatic ducts gradually merge into two larger hepatic ducts along the connective tissue between the lobules and exit the liver from the hilum. The function of the liver is to transport bile.

Liver tube 1 (6 photos)

Anatomy of the liver tube

Hepatic portal vein

Portal vein, including hepatic portal vein and pituitary portal vein. The hepatic portal vein is made up of the splenic vein (inferior mesenteric vein is injected into the splenic vein) and the superior mesenteric vein, and blood from the abdominal organs is recovered. There is no valve in the portal vein, so when the portal vein is hypertensive, blood can flow through the branches.

The portal vein includes the hepatic portal vein and the pituitary portal vein.

It is a large vein in the abdominal cavity. It collects venous blood from the stomach, small intestine, large intestine (to the upper rectum), pancreas, gallbladder, and spleen and enters the liver.

The portal vein of an adult is about 8 cm in length and about 1.5 cm in diameter. It is formed by the splenic vein and the superior mesenteric vein behind the pancreatic neck. It goes up to the right and enters the free margin of the hepatoduodenal ligament. At the rear, it goes up to the first hepatic hiatus and is divided into the left and right branches into the liver, which branches repeatedly in the liver, and finally forms an interlobular vein, which joins the hepatic sinusoids with the branch interlobular artery of the hepatic artery.

The portal vein originates from the capillaries of the abdominal digestive organs (digestive tract and pancreas), spleen, etc., and is gradually collected to form the portal vein, which is the main source of liver blood (about 70%). After the portal vein enters the liver, it branches repeatedly and finally flows into the hepatic sinus, so it is a venous system between the capillaries at both ends.

The portal vein is at the hepatoduodenal ligament, behind the hepatic artery and common bile duct. At the free margin of the liver-duodenal ligament, there is generally no branch of the portal vein. Behind the first part of the duodenum, veins from the stomach and pancreas duodenum are directly injected into the portal vein. In the position of the first hepatic hilum, the portal vein is divided into a stubby right trunk and an elongated left trunk. The left and right portal veins respectively emit 1-3 small veins to the caudate lobe to the left and right sections. The leaf portal vein also originates directly from the main portal vein, or from the transverse part of the left portal vein.

The portal vein is approximately equal to the height of the second lumbar spine behind the pancreatic neck, and is formed by the superior mesenteric and splenic veins at a right angle in front of the inferior vena cava. Inferior mesenteric veins merged into the splenic veins accounted for 52.02%; inferior mesenteric veins merged into the superior mesenteric veins accounted for 24.60%; or from the splenic veins, superior and inferior mesenteric veins merged into the portal vein, accounting for 13.29%.

Hepatic artery

The hepatic artery is one of the three branches of the abdominal artery. It is issued by the celiac artery as the common hepatic artery; above the first part of the duodenum, the right gastric artery and the gastroduodenal artery are successively separated, and the trunk is called the inherent hepatic artery; it is in the liver with the portal vein and common bile duct. The duodenal ligament is ascending internally, most of which are divided into left and right hepatic arteries outside the first hepatic hilum, and a few are divided into left, middle, and right branches, which enter the left and right hepatic lobes, respectively. The right hepatic artery divides the gallbladder artery before entering the liver. Anatomical variation is seen in more than 40% of patients. These vascular distributions and variations are important for reading of abdominal or hepatic arteriography. The hepatic artery blood supply is about 25% of the total liver blood supply, and the oxygen supply is about 50%.

After birth, one artery is generally reserved, most of which are arteries originating from the celiac arteries, which divide the left and right hepatic arteries to supply the left and right hepatic livers. Occasionally, arteries originating from the left gastric artery or arteries originating from the superior mesenteric artery can be seen. But there are also two arteries coexisting, such as originating from the celiac artery and the left gastric artery (25%), originating from the celiac artery and originating from the superior mesenteric artery (10%), and originating from the left gastric artery and originating from the mesentery It is rare that both arteries of the superior artery coexist. In addition, 5% of people have three arteries at the same time as the embryo. This type of hepatic artery originating outside the celiac artery is called the vagus hepatic artery. If the liver does not have an arterial blood supply originating from the celiac artery, this ectopic hepatic artery is called a substitute artery. This ectopic originating artery supplies part of the blood flow to the liver. This hepatic artery is called the accessory hepatic artery.

Liver transplant surgeons must also be very familiar with the hepatic arterial variability, as this is important in both donor liver acquisition and vascular anastomosis.