VENA PORT.E AND BRANCHES. 



449 



the artery, and runs beneath the pancreas to the front of the vena cava, 

 where it joins the superior mesenteric vein (b) to form the vena portae. 



Between its origin and termination it receives branches corresponding 

 with the following arteries : vasa brevia (<?), left gastro-epiploic (e), and 

 pancreatic. The inferior mesenteric vein (d) opens into it about its 

 middle. 



The vena portce (fig. 146, a) is formed by the union of the splenic and 

 superior mesenteric veins. Its origin is placed in front of the vena cava, 

 but beneath the pancreas, and two inches from the right end. The vessel 

 is about four inches long, and is directed upwards in the small omentum, 

 behind the bile duct and the hepatic artery, to the transverse fissure of the 

 liver, where it divides into a right and a left branch. 



Fig. 146. 



a. Trunk of the vena portae. 



b. Upper mesenteric. 



c. Right gastro-epiploic. 



d. Inferior mesenteric. 



e. Left gastro-epiploic. 



/. Coronary of the stomach. 

 g. Vasa brevia. 



VEKA PORTJE AND THE VEINS JOINING IT (Ilenle: Anatomic des Menschen). 



In its course it is joined by the coronary vein (/), and by the cystic 

 vein near the liver. 



The right branch enters the transverse fissure to ramify in the right 

 lobe of the liver. 



The left branch is distributed to the left part of the liver, and gives a 

 small branch to the Spigelian lobe. 

 29 



