Trunk vessels (aorta, vena cava, abdominal branches)
Common hepatic artery
Arteria hepatica communis
- Origin
- Branch of the celiac trunk passing to the right along the superior border of the pancreas
- Insertion
- Divides into the proper hepatic artery and gastroduodenal artery
- Function
- Supplies arterial blood to the liver, gallbladder, stomach, duodenum, and pancreas
- Innervation
- Hepatic nerve plexus
- Movement & chain
- Arterial pulsatile flow
- Palpation
- Not palpated directly
- Clinical
- Hepatic artery aneurysm (second most common splanchnic aneurysm; risk of hemobilia or intraperitoneal rupture).
- Segmental innervation
- T6-T9 spinal levels
- In clinical practice
- CT angiography assessment prior to Whipple pancreaticoduodenectomy to identify aberrant arterial anatomy
- Region in the model
- Trunk vessels (aorta, vena cava, abdominal branches)