[Angiographic anatomy of arterial branches to the caudate lobe of the liver with special reference to its effect on transarterial embolization of hepatocellular carcinoma].

The arterial branches to the caudate lobe of the liver have been little studied angiographically, so it has been thought that the branches can be rarely recognized on the hepatic angiogram. We evaluated it with the stereo or stereo-magnification angiograms in 106 cases. They were identified in 90 cases (84.9%), one branch in 75 cases, two branches in 15 cases. The branches had a variable origin. In 50%, it originated from the right hepatic artery. In some cases, it came from both the right and left hepatic arteries. Recently we treated 10 cases of hepatocellular carcinoma in the caudate lobe with transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE), the results were poor in them except for one. We think that the proximal and variable origins of the caudate lobe arteries are the main cause of the poor effect of TAE.