What does caput medusae look like?

What does caput medusae look like?

Caput medusae, sometimes called a palm tree sign, refers to the appearance of a network of painless, swollen veins around your bellybutton. While it’s not a disease, it is a sign of an underlying condition, usually liver disease.

Which veins produce caput medusae?

What Causes Caput Medusae? The appearance of swollen veins around your belly button is a symptom of circulatory issues. The root cause of caput medusae is portal hypertension, which is an increase in pressure in the portal vein. That’s the vein that moves blood from your digestive tract to your liver.

How can you tell the difference between Caput Medusa and IVC obstruction?

Caput Medusae is distinguished from inferior vena cava obstruction by determining the direction of flow in the veins below the umbilicus; it is towards the legs in the former, and towards the head in the latter (as abdominal collaterals develop to bypass the blocked inferior vena cava and permit venous return from the …

What is caput medusae and its cause?

Caput medusae is one of the cardinal features of portal hypertension. The appearance is due to cutanous portosystemic collateral formation between distended and engorged paraumbilical veins that radiate from the umbilicus across the abdomen to join systemic veins.

What are paraumbilical veins?

The paraumbilical veins are thick-walled and of similar structure to the umbilical vein. Together they constitute an accessory portal system which is confined between the layers of the falciform ligament and is in communication with the veins of the ventral abdominal wall.

Where is the paraumbilical vein?

The paraumbilical veins are small veins around the falciform ligament that drain venous blood from the anterior part of the abdominal wall and diaphragm directly into the liver, and communicate with other anterior abdominal wall veins.

Which vein connects with the paraumbilical veins?

In the course of the round ligament of liver, small veins (paraumbilical) are found which establish an anastomosis between the veins of the anterior abdominal wall and the hepatic portal, hypogastric, and iliac veins.

When should you suspect Budd-Chiari syndrome?

Doctors suspect the Budd-Chiari syndrome in people with either of the following: An enlarged liver, ascites, liver failure, or cirrhosis when there is no obvious cause, even after testing. Abnormal results of blood tests done to evaluate the liver plus conditions that increase the risk of blood clots.

What is a paraumbilical vein?

Where does the Paraumbilical vein drain?

The most common path of drainage of paraumbilical veins is through the inferior epigastric veins, which follow the posterior face of the rectus abdominis muscles to finally reach the external iliac veins.