Assessment of the morphology and morphometry of the caudate lobe of the liver using computed tomography

The caudate lobe differs from the rest of the liver. This study was planned to evaluate the caudate lobe's morphology, morphometry, and vascular structures using computed tomography (CT).

Three hundred eighty-eight cases were evaluated retrospectively in terms of caudate lobe morphology, morphometry, and vascular anatomy from patients undergoing contrast-enhanced abdominal CT for any reason between September 2018 and December 2019. After the application of exclusion criteria, 196 patients were eventually included in the study.

One hundred seventeen (59.7%) of the 196 patients were men. The patients' mean age was 57.88 years (ranging from 18 to 82). Morphologically, the caudate lobe was classified as rectangular, piriform, or irregular-shaped, with 117 cases being evaluated as piriform (59.7%), 51 as irregular-shaped (26%), and 28 as rectangular (14.3%). The caudate process was visible in most cases (92.9%). No papillary process was observed in the great majority of patients (87.2%).

Caudate lobe evaluation criteria can be obtained using CT in vivo based on morphological and morphometric values for the caudate lobes yielded by cadaver studies.