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OR / Prep · Hepatobiliary Surgery · open

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Liver resection (segmentectomy)

Why are we operating?

Removal of anatomical liver segments along Couinaud's planes: cancer surgery built on the fact that the liver is eight independent territories, each with its own inflow, outflow and duct.

Indication: Colorectal liver metastases, hepatocellular carcinoma in a non-cirrhotic or well-compensated liver, and symptomatic benign lesions.

The operation in 4 steps

  1. 01Assessment and ultrasound

  2. 02Inflow control

  3. 03Parenchymal transection

  4. 04The cut surface and drains

Danger zones

  • Common bile duct

    The structure every biliary operation is designed not to injure; misidentification is the field's defining catastrophe.

  • Right hepatic artery

    Crosses the triangle aberrantly in about one in seven patients, hugging the cystic duct.

  • Duct of Luschka

    A small subvesical duct in the liver bed; missed, it declares itself as a postoperative bile leak.

Watch it done

Find Liver resection (segmentectomy) videos on YouTube

Conceptual teaching for learners preparing to observe and assist under supervision, not operative instructions. Five minutes from now you should know why this operation exists, what its shape is, and which structures it is designed not to injure.