It is time to live it up with the liver!!!! First to even get to the organ of the day, you have to get rid of the sternum. Lifting up the sternum with your forceps, puncture the diaphragm and cut along each side of the sternum up through the cervical girdle (just follow the dotted lines in the diagram). Be careful to keep the points of your scissors pointed upward in order to prevent any damage to the thoracic organs underneath. The thymus occasionally has the tendency to cling to the dorsal side of the sternum, so be careful. The sternum is a good bone for any bone marrow examinations, so preserve it if this is your intention Next, sever the vena cava on the thoracic side of the liver and pull the esophagus through the liver in the anterior direction (you will thank yourself later for this little maneuver).
You now have to cut the diaphragm out in order to remove the liver. Using the diaphragm as a handle, start pulling the liver out of the abdominal cavity until you feel some resistance. Just when you thought you had it easy, the hepatic artery is causing a little kink in your plan. Cut the hepatic artery, being careful not to prematurely liberate the right adrenal. Good job. If you intend to weigh the liver, rinse and drain it of excess blood.
Depending on your protocol, different
lobes will be taken. You have a four lobed liver (if you don't,
just quit now while you are ahead). There is a median lobe, left
lobe, right lobe, and the caudate lobes (see diagram). The gall
bladder is hanging in the little bifurcation of the median lobe.
If this is of particular interest for you, leave it where it is
and request it sectioned by the histology people. Separate the
lobes from each other at the junctions, examine for any lesions,
and place in fixative. Fixing the liver whole will not permit
the fixative to penetrate and all your work will be of no use.
Please spend the few extra seconds needed in order to separate
the lobes before fixation.
Liver
Trimming Protocol
