[A case of the three branches of the celiac trunk arising directly from the abdominal aorta]

The present report describes the dissection of an 81 year-old Japanese female cadaver in the Kanazawa Medical University in which the celiac trunk was not present, that is, the left gastric, the splenic and the common hepatic arteries arose independently from the abdominal aorta in that order. In this case, the left gastric artery arose from the front wall of the abdominal aorta at a level between the 11th intercostal posterior and subcostal arteries. The splenic artery arose from the left front wall of the abdominal aorta about 5.0 mm below the origin of the left gastric artery. The common hepatic artery arose from the right front wall of the abdominal aorta about 4.0 mm below the origin of the splenic artery. The superior mesenteric artery dividing from the front wall of the abdominal aorta about 9.0 mm below the origin of the common hepatic artery, ran about 17.0 mm to give off the right accessory hepatic artery upwards to the right. This case belongs to type V of Morita's classification (1935), but was not described in Adachi's classification (1928). There seems to be only six such cases reported so far in Japan.