hepatic
Meaning of hepatic: Hepatic describes anything relating to, affecting, or associated with the liver, including its blood vessels, tissue, and function.
Definition of hepatic
Hepatic is an adjective meaning relating to the liver. It is used broadly across medicine to describe liver anatomy, such as the hepatic artery and hepatic veins, liver function, as in hepatic enzymes, and disease processes that originate in or affect the liver.
Because the liver performs many roles, including metabolism, protein synthesis, detoxification, and bile production, hepatic findings can appear in laboratory results, imaging reports, and clinical descriptions across a wide range of specialties. A hepatic abnormality may reflect a primary liver disease or a change caused by a condition elsewhere in the body.
The word is often paired with other terms to specify location or function more precisely, such as intrahepatic, meaning within the liver, or hepatocellular, meaning relating to the liver's main cells.
How hepatic is built
- hepat/o Combining form · Greek liver
- -ac, -al, -ar, -ary, -eal, -ic Suffix · Greek and Latin pertaining to, relating to
A medical term is read from its ending backwards: the suffix first, then the prefix, then the root. See all 223 word parts.
Used in a sentence
Laboratory testing showed mildly elevated hepatic enzymes on the routine panel.
Good to know
Hepatic and hepatitic are sometimes confused; hepatic simply means relating to the liver, while conditions ending in -itis, such as hepatitis, specifically indicate inflammation.
Word origin
Where “hepatic” comes from
From Greek hepar, hepat- ("liver"), by way of Latin hepaticus.