THE BILATERALITY OF THE LIVER

Abstract

Since the statement of Duvernoy,¹ in 1835, that the number of lobes in the liver described by different authors was truly remarkable, there have been many further plans proposed for dividing this organ into separate anatomic areas. At the present time the majority of modern textbooks describe the liver as consisting either of two lobes separated by the falciform ligament, or of some variation of the familiar "five lobes, five surfaces and five fissures." A review of the literature will easily convince one that the question has been considered from different standpoints with just as diverse results, so that a correlation of the various embryologic, anatomic and morphologic conceptions is rather difficult. We shall review in some detail the literature on the subject, and present evidence of an anatomic and pathologic nature which may aid in its solution. HISTORICAL REVIEW Duvernoy¹ (1835), from a comparative anatomic study, concluded