Can Beaver Tail Liver be the Cause of Preference in Living Liver Transplantation Donors?

Objective: This study aims to investigate whether there was a difference between the levels of safety in terms of the postoperative residual liver volume in living transplant donors with normal liver anatomy and beaver tail liver.

Materials and methods: Contrast-enhanced abdominal computed tomography (CT) images of 158 volunteers were retrospectively scanned. They were divided into 2 groups; with and without beaver tail liver. The total and left lobe volumes of the liver in all the candidates were calculated. The data were evaluated using the Mann-Whitney U test. Statistical values of p<0.05 were considered significant.

Results: The median value of the total liver volume was 1.252 mL and that of the left lobe percentage was 38% in the beaver tail group and 1.375 mL and 35%, respectively, in the normal liver group. A significant difference was observed in terms of the total liver volume and left lobe volume percentages of the 2 groups (p=0.012 and p<0.001, respectively).

Conclusion: The percentage of the left lobe in the beaver tail group was significantly higher, which indicates that liver transplantation donors with the beaver tail feature may be safer in terms of residual liver volume.