A CASE OF THE HEPATIC ARTERY ARISING FROM THE SUPERIOR MESENTERIC ARTERY

Abstract

In a student course of gross anatomy dissection at Showa University School of Medicine in 2003, we found an extremely rare case of the hepatic artery arising from the superior mesenteric artery of an 88-years-old Japanese female cadaver who had died of hepatopathy. This case belonged to type VI of Adachi's classification of the celiac trunk and the superior mesenteric artery (1928) . The left gastric artery and the splenic artery which form the gastro-splenic arterial trunk arose from the abdominal aorta, and the hepatic artery arose from the superior mesenteric artery and passed the dorsum of the portal vein. In addition, the Inferior phrenic artery arose from the gastro-splenic arterial trunk.