Surgical experience of hepatectomy in a live donor with absent celiac trunk - a case report

Abstract

Background Celiac trunk agenesis is the recent and the rarest vascular variation reported. Reported cases in literature were identified either incidentally on imaging or while cadaveric dissections. This is a unique experience of hepatectomy in a patient without celiac artery ever reported. Case presentation This is a case of a patient who was scheduled to undergo donor hepatectomy. He was found to have a rare anatomical variation of agenesis of the celiac trunk during preoperative imaging done as a routine transplant surgery workup. He underwent live donor hepatectomy with no intra-operative or post-operative complications. This is the first case to be reported in the literature of a donor hepatectomy for liver transplantation in a patient with this rarest vascular variation of the celiac axis. Conclusion Pre-operative imaging to determine hepatic vascular anatomy improves the understanding of the surgeon intraoperatively while dissection and decreases the chance of any iatrogenic damage.