Abstract
Anatomical variations in the hepatic arteries and in the celiac trunk are important
in liver transplants, laparoscopic surgeries, abdominal radiological interventions,
and perforating injuries in the abdomen. The goal of the present report is to describe
an abdominal vascular variation observed during a routine dissection in the Anatomy
Laboratory of the Centro Universitário São Camilo, São Paulo, state of São Paulo,
Brazil, in a male individual. The superior mesenteric artery had its origin in the
celiac trunk and originated a right accessory hepatic artery that followed its path
all the way to the liver. Several authors described variations in the origin and in
the path of the hepatic artery and even created specific classifications. The advance
of imaging methods that increase the number of studied individuals, without the need
of dissection, aids exponentially the quantifying studies that seek to determine a
pattern in the variations present in certain populations. The variations of the hepatic
artery, as well as of the celiac trunk, have been extensively described in the literature;
however, there is no pattern in the number of variations found both in the celiac
trunk and in the regular hepatic artery, what leads to a need of description in each
case found.
Keywords
anatomical variation - clinical anatomy - macroscopic human anatomy - morphology applied
to other sciences
