[Significance of umbilical and paraumbilical veins as collaterals in portal hypertension].

Twenty-one postmortem specimens of the liver (18 normal livers, 3 liver metastases) with attached ligamentum teres were investigated using silicone rubber injection technique. In all cases, the paraumbilical veins were demonstrated. They were usually divided into 2 groups, one on the right and the other on the left side of the ligamentum teres, and they terminated in a variable manner into small peripheral portal vein branches in the liver parenchyma. A patent proximal segment of the umbilical vein was found in 7 of the 21 cases. Connections between the umbilical vein and paraumbilical veins were supposed to represent one of the collateral channels in portal hypertension.