Morphometry and branching geometry of the celiac trunk and its principal branches: a cadaveric study in a Vietnamese...

The celiac trunk supplies the foregut and is a key landmark in upper abdominal, hepatobiliary, and endovascular procedures. Vietnamese population-specific data are scarce, and the branching geometry of the celiac division - along-vessel tapering and cross-sectional area expansion - has rarely been quantified.

Thirty-five formalin-fixed adult Vietnamese cadavers (20 male, 15 female; mean age 67 ± 13 years) were dissected. Length and proximal and terminal external diameters of the celiac trunk and the left gastric, splenic, and common hepatic arteries were measured; the trunk was measurable in 24 specimens. A taper ratio (terminal/proximal diameter) was derived for each vessel, and the ratio of summed branch cross-sectional area to trunk area was calculated for each specimen with complete data. Both indices are within-specimen ratios and are largely insensitive to fixation-related scaling.

The left gastric artery was the narrowest branch (all adjusted p < 0.001). The splenic and common hepatic arteries had comparable proximal caliber (p = 0.587), but the splenic artery tapered markedly (taper ratio 0.74 ± 0.11 vs 0.91 ± 0.08 and 0.93 ± 0.18; p < 0.001). Summed branch area was 2.06 ± 0.70 times the trunk area (95% CI 1.77-2.36), exceeding the minimum- work optimum of 1.44 predicted for a symmetric trifurcation (p < 0.001). No association between vessel caliber and age or sex was detected (p ≥ 0.35).

The left gastric artery is consistently the smallest branch, the splenic artery tapers distinctly along its course, and the celiac trifurcation shows a twofold area expansion. These ratio-based indices are robust to fixation and provide reference descriptors relevant to graft and stent sizing and to splenic arterial disease.