Hepatic portal vein

Looks like

A short wide vein behind the pancreas, made where the gut veins meet.

What it does

Carries everything absorbed from the gut to the liver before it reaches the body.

Keeping it well

Alcohol in limits and weight control; when the liver scars, pressure here backs up into the gullet veins.

Its parts

• Right portal vein
• Pre-hepatic portal vein
• Portal vein
• Colic vein
• Ileocolic vein
• Ileal vein
• Inferior mesenteric vein
• Gastric vein
• Gastroepiploic vein
• Middle colic vein
• Pancreaticoduodenal vein
• Sigmoid vein
• Splenic vein
• Superior mesenteric vein
• Superior rectal vein

Related conditions

• Acute liver failure
• Acute porphyria
• Alcohol withdrawal and delirium tremens
• Alcohol-related liver disease
• Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency
• Autoimmune hepatitis
• Bile duct cancer (cholangiocarcinoma)
• Biliary atresia
• Brucellosis
• Chronic venous insufficiency
• Cirrhosis
• Clotting disorders (thrombophilia & APS)
• Deep vein thrombosis
• Dengue & mosquito-borne fevers
• Ebola virus disease
• Echinococcosis (hydatid disease)
• Eye melanoma (uveal melanoma)
• Gilbert's syndrome
• Haemochromatosis & Wilson's disease
• Hepatic encephalopathy
• High cholesterol
• Intestinal worms & schistosomiasis
• Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy
• Leishmaniasis
• Leptospirosis (Weil's disease)
• Liver abscess (pyogenic and amoebic)
• Liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma)
• Malaria
• Metabolic fatty liver disease (MASLD)
• Metabolic syndrome
• Myelofibrosis
• Newborn jaundice
• Phenylketonuria (PKU)
• Poisoning & overdose
• Portal vein thrombosis and Budd–Chiari syndrome
• Primary biliary cholangitis
• Primary sclerosing cholangitis
• Varicose veins
• Viral hepatitis (A, B, C, D, E)
• Yellow fever