Anatomy study note · Abdomen

Liver

The largest gland in the body, under the right costal margin and diaphragm. It secretes bile, takes part in carbohydrate, fat and protein metabolism, filters and detoxifies the blood, and makes heparin.

Key points

• Blood: portal vein 70% + hepatic artery 30% → sinusoids → hepatic veins → IVC.
• Portal triad: artery, portal vein, bile duct.
• Quadrate + caudate lobes = functional left lobe.
• Ligamentum teres = umbilical vein; ligamentum venosum = ductus venosus.
• Bare area: no peritoneum (coronary ligament).
• Biopsy: right 8th/9th space, midaxillary line, expiration.
• Hepatic bud: endoderm → hepatocytes.
• Fetal liver forms blood.
• Lobule: hepatocyte plates → central vein; portal triad at corners.
• Kupffer cells (phagocytes); Ito cells (vitamin A).

The full note in the atlas also covers

Features · Blood supply · Nerve supply · Lymph drainage · Histology · Development · Clinical notes

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Written from

• Snell’s Clinical Anatomy by Regions, 10th ed., ch. 7, PDF pp. 902–906, 914–915
• Inderbir Singh’s Human Embryology, ch. 14, PDF pp. 196–198
• BRS Cell Biology & Histology, 7th ed., ch. 17, PDF pp. 310–314

More from the abdomen

• Lumbar plexus
• Pancreas
• Peritoneum
• Portal vein
• Psoas major
• Pyramidalis
• Quadratus lumborum
• Rectus abdominis
• Renal arteries and veins
• Spleen
• Stomach
• Superficial epigastric vessels

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