Right hepatic artery from splenic artery: the four-leaf clover of hepatic surgery

Francesco Caruso1, Daniele Dondossola2, Gianluca Fornoni2

  • 1HBP Surgery and Liver Transplantation Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico di Milano, Via Francesco Sforza, 35, 20122, Milan, MI, Italy. alessandrofrancescocaruso@yahoo.it.

The anatomy of hepatic arteries is one of the most variable. Accurate awareness of all the possible anatomic variations is crucial in the upper GI surgery and especially in liver and pancreas transplantation. The most frequent anatomical variants are: a replaced or accessory right hepatic artery (RHA) from the superior mesenteric artery (6.3-21 %), a replaced or accessory left hepatic artery (LHA) from the left gastric artery (LGA) (3-18 %) or a combination of these two variants (up to 7.4 %). Herein, we describe the case of a 67-year-old cadaveric organ donor who presented a RHA originating from the splenic artery (SA) associated with both a CHA originating from the celiac trunk (CT) and a LHA originating from the LGA.

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