THROMBOSIS OF THE HEPATIC VEINS

Abstract

IT IS THE purpose of this paper to report 2 cases of thrombosis of hepatic veins and review 95 from over 100 in the literature, to emphasize that the syndrome is not always due to one disease process, as is so commonly implied, and to attempt to give a clearer conception of the various other processes which may cause it. In the majority of reported cases there is gross obstruction of hepatic veins, leading to engorgement and necrosis of the liver and to portal obstruction. In some instances the block occurs as a final episode in an already advanced disease which itself masks the characteristic clinical picture of the Chiari syndrome or leaves no time for its development. There is also a smaller group of cases in which the obstruction is limited to one lobe or to part of a lobe. While there is a pathologic unity which may be