Tag Archives: liver

A Missing Portal Vein?

Prompted by a comment I received a few weeks ago from a great-grandmother in North Carolina concerning her 2 1/2 year old great-granddaughter, I want to bring attention to a rare condition called Abernethy Malformation.

Congenital absence of the portal vein called a portosystemic shunt (aka Abernethy Malformation or liver shunt) causes blood to drain away from the portal system, and in turn the blood bypasses the liver.  In more recent findings however, there is new evidence which seems to point to the portal vein as being so tiny it does not present itself in regular testing Continue reading