ANATOMICAL VARIATIONS OF HEPATIC ARTERY USING MULTIDETECTOR COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY (MDCT) ANGIOGRAPHY

: Background: Hepatic arterial variations are important during hepatobiliary surgery, liver transplantation, and interventional radiology. Missed variants may increase the risk of bleeding, biliary injury, hepatic ischemia, and incomplete catheter-based treatment. Objective: To determine the frequency of types of hepatic artery variations in patients using post-contrast abdominal multidetector computed tomography. Methodology: This cross-sectional study was carried out at the Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Pakistan Kidney and Liver Institute, Lahore, between 10 May 2025 and 10 November 2025. The patients involved in this study were 298 patients of both sexes aged 15-65 years who underwent abdominal CT in the arterial phase using non-probability consecutive sampling. Patients with impaired renal function, iodinated contrast allergy, previous hepatic or major abdominal surgery or pathology altering vascular anatomy were excluded. A 128-slice CT scanner was used to perform the CT angiography. Multiplanar and three dimensional reconstruction was performed and reviewed. Hepatic arterial anatomy was classified according to Michel’s classification and Hiatt’s classification. The SPSS version 25.0 was used for analysis of the data including standard deviation and Pearson chi square tests. Results: The mean age was 54.06 ± 11.59 years. Male patients were 244 (81.9%). Michel Type I anatomy was found in 220 patients (73.8%). Anomalous hepatic arterial pattern was found in 78 patients (26.2%). Michel Type III was the most common anomaly. No significant association was found with gender or age group. Conclusion: Normal hepatic arterial anatomy was the most frequent pattern, while Michel Type III was the commonest variant. MDCT angiography was useful for identifying hepatic arterial variations.