Surgical anatomy of hepatic veins: morphologic and angiographic study in the dog.

Post-mortem angiography with Schlesinger mass was performed on 30 mongrel dogs to study the hepatic veins and its confluence into the caudal vena cava. The study was complemented by anatomic dissection of the specimens with the purpose of confronting angiographic and morphologic patterns. After sacrificing the animals by section of the cervical vessels, a right thoraco-abdominal incision was made with exposition of the vena cava followed by retrograde catheterization and injection of radiopaque mass through a polyethylene catheter. Two radiographies were performed, one with the dog in a supine position and another of the specimen after its withdraw "en bloc", from the abdominal cavity. The left hepatic division alone or the central and left divisions "en bloc" are the ones that should be used for studies of hepatic ressection, segmentar portal hypertension and lobar liver transplant.