Porta hepatis

Looks like

A deep slit on the underside of the liver, between the caudate and quadrate lobes.

What it does

The doorway where the portal vein and hepatic artery enter the liver and the bile ducts and lymph vessels leave it.

Keeping it well

Tumours at the fork of the bile ducts here (Klatskin tumours) block bile early and cause painless jaundice. Enlarged nodes here can squeeze the bile duct.

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