REGULARITIES OF VARIABILITY OF LIVER LINEAR DIMENSIONS IN DIFFERENT ANATOMICAL VARIANTS OF ORGAN POSITION IN THE ABDOMINAL CAVITY

Abstract

A large variety of anatomic variants of liver positions and shapes results in a significant variability of the data of its linear dimension determination, which may be the reason for misinterpretation of the information regarding the size of the organ as a whole and of its individual segments, in particular. In this work the analysis was performed of the linear dimensions of the liver, its right and the left lobes measured during spiral computed tomography (SCT), taking into account the anatomic variability of the position of the organ, in 193 individuals of both sexes of juvenile and first period of mature age without pathology of the liver and cardiovascular system. Besides the traditionally distinguished variants of the position of the organ in the abdominal cavity, in part of the individuals examined the combined displacement of the organ relative to the sagittal and frontal planes was noted. It was demonstrated that in combined displacement of the liver in two planes, linear parameters of this organ were extremely changeable and approached the extreme variants of the anatomic variability. The dependence of traditionally measured linear parameters of the liver from the anatomic variant of organ position in the abdominal cavity was studied. The data obtained suggest that the interpretation of SCT results without consideration of the anatomic variant of organ position may lead to erroneous judgments about the size of the liver and its individual parts.