Beaver Tail Liver Masquerading As Acute Pancreatitis

An unusual anatomical variation known as "beaver tail liver" occurs when the liver's left lobe spreads laterally until it touches the spleen. It is also known as a sliver liver, saber-shaped liver, or flax-like liver. We are talking about a 34-year-old man, a chronic alcoholic in this...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Curēus (Palo Alto, CA) CA), 2024-06, Vol.16 (6), p.e63015
Main Authors: Reddy, Harshitha, Gaidhane, Shilpa A, Kumar, Sunil, Kothari, Manjeet, Malali, Suprit
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abdomen
Alcohol
Asymptomatic
Blood
Case reports
Fever
Gastroenterology
Hematoma
Hepatitis
Internal Medicine
Liver
Pancreatitis
Pathology
Phosphatase
Radiology
Spleen
Tomography
Trauma
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:An unusual anatomical variation known as "beaver tail liver" occurs when the liver's left lobe spreads laterally until it touches the spleen. It is also known as a sliver liver, saber-shaped liver, or flax-like liver. We are talking about a 34-year-old man, a chronic alcoholic in this case, who had complaints of upper abdominal pain, persistent vomiting, and abdominal palpation elicited tenderness in the upper abdomen. Also, he had hepatosplenomegaly. On further investigation, he was diagnosed with alcoholic hepatitis, and on computed tomography, there was enlargement of the left lobe of the liver, which was beaver tail liver. This case report aimed to present a detailed account of a patient presenting with upper abdominal pain and clinical suspicion of acute pancreatitis. On imaging, there was a beaver tail liver. This unusual morphology can be an incidental finding during imaging studies or surgical procedures, often posing diagnostic challenges and considerations for clinicians.
ISSN:2168-8184
2168-8184
DOI:10.7759/cureus.63015