The effect of hepatic steatosis and fibrosis on liver weight and dimensions.

ABSTRACT

The liver is the most commonly injured abdominal organ, accounting for around half of abdominal organ injuries. The emergence of liver injury is determined by the injury mechanism, force, and tissue vulnerability. The vulnerability of the liver depends on the strength of the capsule and parenchyma, as well as the weight and dimensions of the liver. The common hepatic diseases, like steatosis, fibrosis, and cirrhosis, can change the organ weight and dimensions, but their exact correlation is not well known. This study was designed to evaluate the correlation between liver diseases, weight, and dimensions. The liver weight, horizontal, vertical, and antero-posterior length were measured obtained by 213 forensic autopsies. The recorded data were compared with body height, age, and liver histology. Body height positively correlated with liver weight (R2 = 0.252), but the correlation was much stronger in the case of livers without structural disease (R2 = 0.450). The liver size seems to significantly decrease with age (R2 = 0.081), but the effect is mostly due to structural alterations that are proven by histology. The comparison of the liver weight in various histological groups clearly indicated that steatosis increases the liver size, but fibrosis does not (if no steatosis is present at the same time). In general, liver dimensions increase proportionally to the liver weight. However, hepatic steatosis causes disproportional enlargement it does not have a significant effect on the horizontal dimension and has only a minor effect on the vertical dimension. Steatosis affects disproportionally the dimensions with a strange tendency to expand liver anteroposteriorly.