From my understanding, liver shunts can be caused by different things.
One form of liver shunt is a leftover fetal blood vessel that carries bloodflow around the liver (so to speak) and another form is an abnormal blood vessel that forms around the liver because of liver disease.
Bloodflow in vessels while in the womb is different than after you are born. There are also shunts in the heart that exist because the mother is breathing for the baby and the baby does not breathe on its own. After a child is born, the communication stops/grows shut. Sometimes, this communication stays open, causing a blood vessel defect.
This is probably a very simplistic explanation. Maybe someone else can explain it better, but I gave it a shot. |