Segmentectomies (Chapters 26–34): A Foreword

In 1957, Couinaud published his fundamental paper on the surgical anatomy of the liver [1], describing the eight segments, everyone with its pedicle: artery, portal vein, and bile duct. Since then, every liver surgeon has referred to it as a bible to be followed during routine surgical practice. Only with the experience with liver transplantation in the mid-1990s was splitting segment 1 into two sections suggested, identifying the portion of segment 1 on the right side of the caval vein as segment 9 [2]. This was only a minor modification of the original classification. Since the rapid spread of liver surgery in the 1970s, several authors have suggested technical tricks to remove the entire segment by sectioning the tributary pedicle [3–5].