THE ABDOMINAL AORTA 



605 



breadth from the greater curvature. This vessel gives off numerous branches, 

 some of which ascend to supply both surfaces of the stomach, while others descend 

 to supply the greater omentum and anastomose with branches of the middle colic. 

 The superior pancreaticoduodenal artery (a. pancreaticoduodenalis superior) 

 descends between the contiguous margins of the duodenum and pancreas. It 

 supplies both these organs, and anastomoses with the inferior pancreaticoduodenal 

 branch of the superior mesenteric artery, and with the pancreatic branches of the 

 lienal artery. 



Branches to greater omentum 







FIG. 533. The celiac artery and its branches; the stomach has been raised and the peritoneum removed. 



The cystic artery (a. cystica) (Fig. 532), usually a branch of the right hepatic, 

 passes downward and forward along the neck of the gall-bladder, and divides into 

 two branches, one ot which ramifies on the free surface, the other on the attached 

 surface of the gall-bladder. 



3. The Lienal or Splenic Artery (a. lienalis}, the largest branch of the celiac 

 artery, is remarkable for the tortuosity of its course. It passes horizontally to 

 the left side, behind the stomach and the omental bursa of the peritoneum, and 

 along the upper border of the pancreas, accompanied by the lienal vein, which 

 lies below it; it crosses in front of the upper part of the left kidney, and, on arriving 

 near the spleen, divides into branches, some of which enter the hilus of that organ 

 between the two layers of the phrenicolienal ligament to be distributed to the tissues 

 of the spleen ; some are given to the pancreas, while others pass to the greater curva- 

 ture of the stomach between the layers of the gastrolienal ligament. Its branches are : 



Pancreatic. Short Gastric. Left Gastroepiploic. 



