Ligamentum venosum

Looks like

A thin fibrous band lying in a deep groove on the underside of the liver, between the caudate and left lobes; the lesser omentum attaches along it.

What it does

It is the sealed remnant of the ductus venosus, a fetal shortcut that let placental blood bypass the liver to reach the heart.

Keeping it well

If the ductus venosus stays open after birth, gut blood bypasses the liver: high ammonia, liver problems and poor growth in newborns. In adults it is a landmark on scans and in liver surgery.

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
• Cirrhosis
• 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
• Viral hepatitis (A, B, C, D, E)
• Yellow fever