ARC Journal of Animal and Veterinary Sciences (AJAVS) Volume 1, Issue 2, 2015, PP 33-41 ISSN 2455-2518 (Online) www.arcjournals.org ©ARC Page | 33 Determination of the Effect of Stomach Volume on Topography of Liver of New Zealand Rabbit (Oryctolagus Cuniculus L.) Ozcan Ozgel 1 Emine Karakurum 1* Yasin Demiraslan 1 1 Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Mehmet Akif Ersoy University Burdur, Turkey 1 ozcanozgel@mehmetakif.edu.tr 1* ekarakurum@mehmetakif.edu.tr 1* eminekarakurum@gmail.com 1 ydemiraslan@mehmetakif.edu.tr Abstract: The purpose of this study is to determine whether the liver of New Zealand rabbit is affected by the fullness level of the stomach or not the help of transversal and paramedian sections through dissection. For this reason, totally 24 adult and healthy New Zealand rabbits including 12 males and 12 females were used. The rabbits were divided in three groups in order to get rabbits which were fed normal, had empty stomach and had full stomach. 6 of the rabbits in every three groups with the same saturation were dissected. The remaining rabbits were specified as recumbent in sternal position and frozen at -20 C. As three from these three animal groups; paramedian sections from 9 rabbits at total and transversal sections from other 9 rabbits were taken by the help of a saw. It was observed that a small part of the liver was placed intrathoracally and the large part was placed intraabdominally in the frontal side of the abdominal cavity. As a result, this study revealed how liver of New Zealand rabbit is affected by fullness level of the stomach through dissection and sectional images. It is thought that the results of the study will contribute to both the clinical anatomy of the rabbits and to the clinical practices. Keywords: Rabbit, Liver, Stomach volume, Cross-sectional anatomy 1. INTRODUCTION Rabbit is a species of Leporidae family of Lagomorpha order [1]. Due to the usage of New Zealand rabbits in experimental researches, it is an animal species frequently preferred by the researches. Because of its anatomic and physiological properties, it appears as an animal model used in the research of some diseases and in surgical studies [2-4]. In the last 10 years, the increase of the rabbit number and concern in Europe has brought along the developments regarding the rabbit medicine. This situation leads the medicine into new searches. One of them is cross-sectional anatomy. For an efficient diagnosis, it is important to know a good cross- sectional anatomy [5]. Also the cross-sectional anatomy has the characteristic of being an atlas for computerized tomography (CT), ultrasonography (US), and magnetic resonance (MRI) imaging techniques. Liver is placed in the right side and front of the abdominal cavity as lean just in caudal side of the diaphragma [6-11]. Facies diaphragmatica consists of the right, left, cranial, dorsal and ventral parts. Right side is the largest part. It stretches from the 6 th intercostal space to the final part or to the 12 th intercostal space [7,12]. In the left side, caudal border is at the 10 th intercostal interval. Cranial part is determined by impressio cardiaca. The part is considerably located in the left side on median line [13,14]. Dorsal part is nearly in the form of a deep recess that is formed by v. cava caudalis and esophagus on a median plane. Its facies visceralis is in an irregular concave form. It is located on the left side as caudoventrally. It is in contact with the stomach, duodenum, pancreas and the right kidney [14]. Its caudal part covers the cranial end of the right kidney and reaches to the transversal plane toward the 13 th vertebra thoracica. The liver is in relationship with omentum majus toward the ventral side [8,10,12,14]. In the rabbits, it is divided in the right and left halves with the help of the ligamentum falciforme. Left half of the liver consists of the lobus lateralis sinister caudalis and lobus medialis sinister caudalis. The right half is divided in 3 lobes as lobus medianus dexter, lobus lateralis dexter and lobus caudatus. Lobus caudatus passes to the ventral side around the vena cava caudalis and esophagus and it generally extends on the left side of the midline [13].