Is the absence of Right Hepatic Vein opening into Inferior Vena Cava a contraindication for right lobe liver donation in Living Donor Liver Transplantation? Common hepatic venous trunk—A rare hepatic vein anomaly: A case report and review

INTRODUCTION: In majority of the living liver donors, the left and the middle hepatic veins form a common trunk and the right hepatic vein drains by a separate trunk into the IVC forming two ostial openings. Presentation of Case: This report presents a rare challenge to the operating surgeon in which the three major hepatic veins form a common trunk and drain into the IVC through a single ostial opening. It was detected preoperatively by the routine donor imaging studies. DISCUSSION: To our knowledge, this type of rare venous anatomy in the setting of living donor liver transplantation has not been described in the literature before. A few studies have described similar anatomy in the cadaveric liver specimen of some particular ethnicity. CONCLUSION: This type of a rare anomaly poses challenge to the donor operation and requires a sound expertise on the knowledge of hepatic venous anatomy to perform the donor hepatectomy with the appropriate maneuvering.