Anatomy and development of the liver

Abstract

The anatomy of the liver has been studied since ancient times, but it was Francis Glisson's Anatomia Hepatis published in 1654 that probably marked the dawn of a new era in the understanding of this topic. In the late 1880s, after the introduction of anaesthesia and antisepsis, the first liver resections were attempted. Further advances in hepatic anatomy were made at the turn of the nineteenth century, but it was not until the late 1950s that the segmental structure of the liver was fully recognised. This discovery, coupled with general advances in surgery and anaesthesia, precipitated a quantum leap forward in hepatic surgery that witnessed the development of increasingly sophisticated segmental liver resections. The introduction of liver transplantation in 1967 and the advent of cross-sectional imaging in the 1970s ushered in further advances in the understanding of liver anatomy, ultimately leading to techniques such as reduced and split-liver transplantation, living-related donation, and even more ambitious hepatic resections. This chapter focuses on the anatomy and development of the liver.