Quantitative anatomy of the large variant right hepatic vein: A systematic three-dimensional analysis

Anatomical variations of the right hepatic vein, especially large variant right hepatic veins (≥5 mm), have important clinical implications in liver transplantation and resection. This study aimed to evaluate anatomical variations of the right hepatic vein using quantitative three-dimensional visualization analysis. Computed tomography images of 650 patients were retrospectively analyzed, and three-dimensional visualization was applied using the derived data to analyze large variant right hepatic veins. The proportion of the large variant right hepatic vein was 16.92% (110/650). According to the location and number of the variant right hepatic veins, the configuration of the right hepatic venous system was divided into seven subtypes. The length of the retrohepatic inferior vena cava had a positive correlation with the diameter of the right hepatic vein (rs = 0.266, p = 0.001) and the variant right hepatic veins (rs = 0.211, p = 0.027). The diameter of the right hepatic vein was positively correlated with that of the middle hepatic vein (rs = 0.361, p < 0.001), while it was inversely correlated with that of the variant right hepatic veins (rs = -0.267, p = 0.005). The right hepatic vein diameter was positively correlated with the drainage volume (rs = 0.489, p < 0.001), while the correlation with the variant right hepatic veins drainage volume was negative (rs = -0.460, p < 0.001). The number of the variant right hepatic veins and their relative diameters were positively correlated (p < 0.001). The volume and percentage of the drainage area of the right hepatic vein decreased significantly as the number of the variant right hepatic vein increased (p < 0.001). The findings of this study concerning the variations of the hepatic venous system may be useful for the surgical planning of liver resection or transplantation.