Sonographic anatomy of the caudate lobe veins

Because of their small size, the caudate lobe veins (CLV) are not routinely imaged with ultrasonography. We recently examined 4 patients with elevated central venous pressure in whom the CLV were easily identifiable. To our knowledge this is the first report of sonographic visualization of these veins. We suggest that visualization of the CLV may not be as rare as previously presumed, and based on our experience, we will propose a nomenclature system for these veins.