460 THE ARTERIES OF THE ABDOMEN. 



Varieties. The coronary artery of the stomach is sometimes given off directly from the 

 aorta, and is occasionally replaced by two separate vessels. It sometimes furnishes the 

 left or an additional hepatic artery. According to Hyrtl there is constantly a small 

 branch which ascends to the left end of the transverse fissure of the liver and anastomoses 

 with an offset of the left hepatic artery : in the infant, this branch is relatively of larger 

 size (Toldt). 



B. The hepatic artery (ii) is in the adult intermediate in size between the 

 coronary and splenic arteries, but in the foetus it is the largest of the three. It is 

 directed at first forwards and to the right, passing over the upper border of the pan- 

 creas, and below the foramen of Winslow, to the upper margin of the pyloric orifice 

 of the stomach, where it gives off its gastro-duodenal branch. It then ascends 

 between the layers of the small omentum, and in front of the foramen of Winslow, 

 towards the transverse fissure of the liver ; and in this course it lies upon the 

 portal vein, and to the left of the common bile-duct. Near the liver, it ends by 

 dividing into right and left branches, which supply the corresponding lobes of that 

 organ. 



Branches. (a) The gastro-duodenal artery (iv) descends near the pylorus behind 

 the first part of the duodenum, and divides at the lower border of that viscus into 

 a smaller superior pancreatico-duodenal and a larger right gastro-epiploic artery. 

 The superior pancreatico-duodenal artery descends along the inner margin of the 

 duodenum, between that and the pancreas, and, after furnishing several branches to 

 both these organs, anastomoses with the inferior pancreatico-duodenal from the 

 superior mesenteric artery. The right gastro-epiploic artery, the continuation of the 

 gastro-duodenal, runs from right to left along the great curvature of the stomach, 

 between the layers of the great omentum, and ends by inosculating with the left 

 gastro-epiploic from the splenic artery. It sends branches upwards to both surfaces 

 of the stomach, and long slender vessels downwards in the omentum. 



(Z>) The pyloric artery, descending from its origin and coming in contact with 

 the stomach at the upper border of the pylorus, extends from right to left along the 

 small curvature, and inosculates with the coronary artery. It is sometimes a branch 

 of the gastro-duodenal. 



(c) The right hepatic branch inclines outwards behind the hepatic and cystic 

 ducts (occasionally in front of the hepatic), giving off the cystic artery as it passes 

 these, and reaches the right end of the transverse fissure, where it divides into two 

 or three branches as it enters the liver substance. The cystic artery (vi) turns for- 

 wards between the cystic and hepatic ducts to the neck of the gall-bladder, and 

 divides into two smaller branches, of which one ramifies between the coats on the 

 inferior surface, the other between the bladder and the liver. 



(d) The left hepatic branch, smaller than the right, from which it diverges at 

 an acute angle, gives off one or two branches to the Spigelian lobe, and enters the 

 liver at the left end of the transverse fissure. The ramifications of the hepatic 

 artery in the liver accompany the divisions of the portal vein and hepatic duct. 



Varieties. The hepatic artery sometimes arises from the superior mesenteric artery, or 

 from the aorta itself. The left hepatic artery is not unfrequently derived from the coronary 

 artery of the stomach, occasionally from the superior mesenteric, rarely from the splenic. 

 Accessoiy hepatic arteries are sometimes met with, generally coming from the coronary 

 artery, less frequently from the superior mesenteric, the aorta, the right renal, or the inferior 

 mesenteric. The hepatic artery has been found to furnish a phrenic branch. The cystic 

 artery has been seen arising from the superior mesenteric. 



C. The splenic artery (ii), in the adult the largest branch of the coeliac axis, 

 supplies the spleen, and in part the stomach and pancreas. Waving and often tor- 

 tuous in its course, it passes along the upper border of the pancreas, across the front 



