ABSTRACT
The liver is the largest organ in the body, weighing 1.5 kg in the average 70-kg man. The liver parenchyma is entirely covered by a thin capsule and by visceral peritoneum on all but the posterior surface of the liver, termed the ‘bare area’. The liver is divided into a large right lobe, which constitutes three-quarters of the liver parenchyma, and a smaller left lobe. Surgical resection of these lobes would be termed a right or left lobectomy.
