European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Background: Liver is largest gland of the body, situated in the right upper quadrant of the abdominal cavity. It occupies whole of the right hypochondrium greater part of epigastrium and extend into the left hypochondrium reaching up to the left lateral line. Liver is divided into right and left lobe by attachment of falciform ligament anteriorly and superiorly; by the fissure for the ligamentum teres inferiorly and by the fissure for the ligamentum venosum posteriorly.The caudate lobe is situated between the ligamentum venosum, porta hepatis and the groove for the inferior vena cava. Whereas the quadrate lobe is situated between ligamentum teres hepatis, fossa for gallbladder and porta hepatis. The caudate lobe is also known as the posterior hepatic segment.
Objective: This study aimsto correlate the length and width of the caudate and quadrate lobes of the liver with the Gestational age (GA) of the fetus.
Methods: This study was conducted on 131 formalin-fixed fetuses with the gestational age ranging from 12 to 36 weeks in the Department of Anatomy D Y Patil medical college in the collaboration with the OBGY Department of D Y Patil Hospital, Nerul, Navi Mumbai. Caudate and quadrate lobes of the liver were dissected and measurements of length, width, and circumference were taken with the help of vernier caliper, measuring scale, and thread. 
Results: In this study, the length of the caudate lobe and the width of the caudate lobe was 10.62±3.22 mm and 6.945±2.391 mm respectively after calculating mean and standard deviation. The length and width of quadrate lobe was 14.775±4.636 mm and 7.555±2.763 mm respectively. The circumference of caudate and quadrate lobes were 40.886±11.647 mm and 48.74±14.008 mm respectively for the total sample size. Calculation of the length, width, and circumference of the caudate and quadrate lobe was found to be statistically significant with the gestational age of fetuses.
Conclusion: From this study we can conclude that there is a significant correlation between the length, width and circumference of the caudate and quadrate lobe with the gestational age.