How many major hepatic veins are there?

There are three major hepatic veins that drain the liver: the right hepatic vein, the middle hepatic vein, and the left hepatic vein. These veins are crucial for draining the deoxygenated blood from the liver and directing it into the inferior vena cava, which subsequently carries the blood back to the heart.

The presence of these three major veins reflects the structured segmentation of the liver, where each vein corresponds to specific hepatic segments. Understanding this anatomy is important in echocardiography as it aids in assessing liver conditions and understanding blood flow dynamics during studies of the heart and surrounding structures.