Trunk vessels (aorta, vena cava, abdominal branches)
Proper hepatic artery
Arteria hepatica propria
- Origin
- Continuation of the common hepatic artery beyond the origin of the gastroduodenal artery
- Insertion
- Ascends within the hepatoduodenal ligament (lying medial to the common bile duct and anterior to the portal vein) to divide at the porta hepatis into left and right branches
- Function
- Supplies oxygen-rich arterial blood to the liver parenchyma and biliary system (supplying ~25% of liver blood volume and 50% of oxygen)
- Innervation
- Hepatic plexus
- Movement & chain
- Arterial pulsatile flow
- Palpation
- Evaluated via Doppler ultrasound of the hepatic hilum
- Clinical
- Hepatic artery thrombosis (HAT; major early complication post-liver transplantation causing biliary ischemia and graft loss), microaneurysms in polyarteritis nodosa.
- Segmental innervation
- T6-T9 spinal levels
- In clinical practice
- Post-liver transplant Doppler resistive index (RI) surveillance, urgent relaparotomy/thrombectomy preparation in acute HAT
- Region in the model
- Trunk vessels (aorta, vena cava, abdominal branches)