Anatomy of pig-liver (sus scrofa domesticus) to serve as an experimental model for human surgery

This survey is based on 129 dissections of pig-livers and his pedicles, on x-rays radiographies of vessels and bile ducts and colored plexiglas injections. We describe general information on the weight, coloration and consistency of the liver.The examination of the external morphology allows to identify a division into 4 lobes, to describe how the organ is fixed and chiefly to describe what are the respective connections between the different elements of the hepatic pedicle in their extra-hepatic section.We mention a few anatomical variations and give a complementary description of the internal shape, and of the intra-hepatic topography of the vessels and bile ducts. We finally try to show the systematization of the hepatic territories.These anatomic knowledge are required before the use of pig-liver as model in experimental surgery. Thus partial or total liver resections, ortho and hetero-topics liver transplantations were realized. Extra corporeal liver perfusions were also performed. The hope placed in liver xenotransplantation still actually stays out of order. But perhaps in the next future, it could be renewed. Based on similar anatomy, physiology and size to human, pigs provide an excellent means, technically simple and easily reproducible, for use in experimental surgery.