Hepatic veins: Anatomy and function

The article was professionally consulted by Specialist Doctor I Vo Thi Thuy Trang - Department of Medical Examination & Internal Medicine - Vinmec Danang International General Hospital.

The hepatic veins are the vessels that carry low-oxygen blood from the liver back to the heart. Veins are a key player in the supply chain, helping to move blood, delivering nutrients and oxygen to every cell in the body. A blockage in one of the hepatic veins can lead to liver failure.

"Hepatic" is the word used to refer to things related to the liver. The cuneiform, V-shaped organ is the largest organ after the skin of the body. The liver's duties include converting nutrients passed from the digestive tract into energy, removing toxins, and sorting waste that the kidneys excrete as urine.
Doctors divide the liver into 8 sections to map surgeries and tests. The three major hepatic veins run between the eight segments as border. The middle hepatic vein is the longest. It divides the liver into right and left lobes. The right hepatic vein is the largest. It divides the right lobe of the liver from anterior to posterior. Divided from left to right is the left hepatic vein. Each hepatic vein may have two or more branches within the liver. The three major hepatic veins connect at the top of the liver in the inferior vena cava, a large vein draining the liver to the right heart chamber. At the bottom of the liver is the organ that supplies blood. One is the hepatic artery, which carries oxygen-rich blood from the heart. The other is the portal vein, which supplies blood from the stomach, intestines, and the rest of the digestive system.

Blood supplies oxygen and nutrients to all tissues of the body. By the time the blood reaches the liver, a lot of oxygen is gone, so it is also called deoxygenated blood. The job of the hepatic veins is to move this blood out of the liver. At any given time, the liver holds about half of the blood, or about one-eighth of the body's total blood volume. The inferior vena cava carries deoxygenated blood from the liver and lower half of the body to the right side of the heart. From there, blood flows to the lungs, where it takes in fresh oxygen and removes carbon dioxide as we breathe.

Sometimes one or more hepatic veins can narrow or become blocked, so blood can flow back to the heart. The cause is usually a blood clot or growth. Other things that can block the hepatic veins include:
Radiation Effects of certain chemotherapy drugs Effects of birth control pills A blocked hepatic vein can damage your liver and lead to a condition called Budd-Chiari syndrome. Symptoms can come in weeks or months. Manifestations of the syndrome may be immediate severe pain or no symptoms until the disease worsens. Without treatment, it can lead to liver failure, cirrhosis (scarring in the liver), or other serious problems.
To deal with it, the doctor will first treat the blood clot or other reason for the blockage. Sometimes surgery can widen the veins or divert blood flow from one vein to another. Patients may need to undergo liver transplant surgery in severe cases

Need to be examined periodically every 6-12 months or when there are signs such as liver pain, weight loss, fatigue, jaundice, fever.

Reference source: webmd.com