Surface Anatomy of the Liver

00:01 In this topic, we're going to look at the liver and the gallbladder.

00:05 So, let's start off just by orientating ourselves with where the liver is within the abdomen.

00:10 And we've spoken about this. We've alluded to this on many videos before now.

00:14 But let's concentrate on the liver itself.

00:17 So the liver sits within the upper aspect of the abdomen nestled quite nicely underneath the diaphragm, specifically up in the right upper quadrant, and also part of it can fit in the upper left quadrant.

00:31 But we can see here if we look at the regions that it sits in the right hypochondriac region the epigastric region, and also over on the left hypochondrium as well.

00:40 So, we can see occupying a large portion of this upper aspect of the abdomen.

00:45 We can also see that it has various different boundaries to it.

00:49 We can remember the midauxilary line here, so that's really forming the right border of the liver.

00:56 And it goes down all the way to the 10th costal cartilage.

00:59 It extends in a typical representation across the abdomen towards the left hand side up to the midclavicular line pretty much in line with the left six rib which you can see here.

01:10 But it is important to appreciate the liver can vary in both size and therefore its location within the abdomen.

01:16 But this is a helpful reminder as to where it can be located.

01:20 Joining up those two points from the left 6th rib down to the 10th costal cartilage on the right hand side, we have the inferior border.

01:28 And then if we were to introduce the right to mid clavicular line, we can see that the liver extends all the way up to the 5th rib on the right hand side.

01:36 Reintroducing over onto the left and the left 6th rib, we can then generate this superior border connecting those two aspects there.

01:45 Connecting the 5th rib and the 10th costal cartilage on the right side, like I said previously, we have the right border.

01:51 Tipping out along the inferior surface of the liver, we have the tip of the gallbladder and this is even more valuable than the position of the liver.

02:00 But pretty much it can be located around the 9th costal cartilage and we can see the gallbladder situated there.