What causes Mickey Mouse ears in the liver on ultrasound?
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Answer:
Normal anatomical arrangement of the portal triad at the porta hepatis on transverse ultrasound, where the portal vein forms the central head and the adjacent common bile duct and hepatic artery form the lateral ears. This is a normal-anatomy sign seen in healthy individuals, not a marker of disease.
Why is it called so?
Resembles the silhouette of Mickey Mouse’s head with prominent rounded ears due to the central circular portal vein flanked by the smaller tubular structures of the common bile duct and hepatic artery.
Pathophysiology
Not applicable as this represents normal vascular and biliary anatomy without pathological alteration; the sign arises from the inherent spatial orientation of these structures in the hepatoduodenal ligament at the porta hepatis.
Alternative names: None
Other associated named signs: The same descriptive analogy (“Mickey Mouse sign”) is also applied to the normal saphenofemoral junction on lower-limb venous ultrasound, an unrelated anatomic site sharing the same three-circle configuration.
References
Access all radiology signs posted so far: https://radiogyan.com/radiology-signs/
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