The minor hepatic veins: anatomy and classification.

A detailed description of the distribution and drainage pattern of the minor hepatic veins is presented in this paper. A classification based on the segmentation of the liver divides these veins into four main groups: 1) veins of Segment I which includes the veins of the caudate lobe and the veins of the caudate process; 2) veins of Segment VI; 3) veins of Segment VII; and 4) veins of Segment IX. A knowledge of the anatomy of the minor hepatic veins becomes more clinically valuable as the number of complex dissections of the retrohepatic areas, hepatectomies. and hepatic transplantations grow.