Morphological Variations of the Liver in Autopsies of the Iranian Population

Abstract

Knowledge about the variations in liver is essential for surgeons and radiologists, so as to prevent wrong interpretation and diagnosis. So far, no data are available on the standard characteristics of normal liver in the Iranian population. Hence, the aim of this study was to evaluate the standard data of a normal liver including weight, length, width, thickness and lobes variations of the liver of Iranians. This cross sectional study was perfomed on 600 cadavers in Mashhad Legal Medicine Center in 2016. After obtaining demographic characteristics of cadavers, the weight, length, width, thickness and variations of the liver lobes were evaluated. Data were analyzed using SPSS software. The mean values of the liver length, width, thickness, weight, and index of the liver were 23.56 ± 16.37 cm, 14.18 ± 3.49 cm, 6.53 ± 1.71cm, 1357.59 ± 381.5 g and 25.44 ± 47.72 respectively. The average length of the portal vein was 5.73±1.56 cm, while the average diameter of the portal vein was 8.90 ± 2.23 mm. Based on Netter's anatomy, most livers (56.7%) were Type III (saddle like liver) and the lowest number of livers (2.2%) were Type II (left liver lobe atrophy). Although, the dimensions and weight of the liver was more in men than women, but except for the portal vein diameter, there was no statistically significant difference between the sexes in other values. There were significant differences between the dimensions of the liver with age, body weight and BMI. Investigation of liver morphological characteristics is useful for surgeons as well as anatomists. Besides, it includes the standard data of anthropometry in the Iranian population.