MAPPING OF PORTAL VEIN IN LIVE LIVER DONORS.

Aim of this study is to document the prevalence of anatomical variations of portal vein from MDCT abdomen images of live liver donors who have attended to a tertiary care hospital in Kochi. Images of 300 live liver donors are assessed and grouped according to the classification done by Cheng et al for portal vein. The portal venous anatomy was of type I in 86% of the portal phase images obtained, type II in 8% cases, type III in 5% cases, and type IV in 1% cases. Awareness of the rare Type II and Type III variants is important preoperatively and intraoperative to avoid risking the donor’s life.