porta hepatis
portal fissure

The horizontal line between the vertical limbs of the "H" represents the porta hepatis.

Usually, it is attached to the left branch of the portal vein within the porta hepatis (gateway to the liver).

The hepatoduodenal ligament is the portion of the lesser omentum extending between the porta hepatis of the liver and the superior part of the duodenum.

The surgery involves exposing the porta hepatis (the area of the liver from which bile should drain) and attaching part of the small intestine to the exposed liver surface.

When these two layers reach the lesser curvature of the stomach and the upper border of the duodenum, they join together and ascend as a double fold to the porta hepatis.

An understanding of both the normal and varied vascular and ductal anatomy of the porta hepatis has increased the number of hepatic duct bifurcation tumors (Klatskin tumors) that can be resected.

They are cuboidal epithelium in the small interlobular bile ducts, but become columnar and mucus secreting in larger bile ducts approaching the porta hepatis and the extrahepatic ducts.

The rationale for this approach is that minute residual bile duct remnants may be present in the fibrous tissue of the porta hepatis and thus provide direct connection with the intrahepatic ductule system to allow bile drainage.

The porta hepatis or transverse fissure of the liver is a short but deep fissure, about 5 cm long, extending transversely across the under surface of the left portion of the right lobe of the liver, nearer its posterior surface than its anterior border.

'It is situated on the right side of the body closely in contact with the inferior surface of the liver,along the right edge of the quadrate lobe in a shallow fossa extending from the right edge of the porta hepatis to the inferior lobe of the liver'

The surface is almost completely invested by peritoneum; the only parts devoid of this covering are where the gall-bladder is attached to the liver, and at the porta hepatis where the two layers of the lesser omentum are separated from each other by the bloodvessels and ducts of the liver.

Portal fissure: found in the under-surface of the liver.