594 



THE BLOOD-VASCULAR SYSTEM 



left toward the cardiac end of the stomach, where it turns sharply round, and then, 

 following the lesser curvature of the stomach, descends from left to right toward 

 the p3dorus. It anastomoses with the right gastric branch of the hepatic artery, 

 which has proceeded from the opposite direction, the two branches thus forming a 

 continuous arterial arch corresponding to the lesser curvature of the stomach. 



The artery at first lies behind the posterior layer of the omental bursa of peritoneum 

 (fig. 480), but on reaching the cardiac end of the stomach it passes, between the layers of 

 peritoneum reflected frorn the diaphragm onto the oesophagus, into the lesser omentum in which 

 it then runs to its terminal anastomosis with the pyloric. It is surrounded by a plexus of 

 sympathetic nerves. 



It supplies both surfaces of the stomach around the lesser curvature and gives off small 

 oesophageal branches [rami cpsophagei] which anastomose with the oesophageal branches 

 from the thoracic aorta. 



Fig. 481. — The Cceliac Artery and its Branches. 



Abdominal aorta 



Right medial crus of diaphragm 



Cystic artery 



Right inferior 

 phrenic artery 



Hepatic duct 



Cystic duct 



Splenic artery 



Common bile 



duct 

 Right gastric 



artery 

 Gastro-duod- 

 enal artery 

 Superior pan- 

 creatico - du- 

 odenal artery 

 Head of 

 pancreas 

 Inferior pan- 

 creatico - du- 

 odenal artery 

 Right gastro- 

 epiploic artery 



Left crus of diaphragm 



(Esophageal branch 



Coeliac artery 

 Left gastric 

 artery Vasa brevia 



I <= ^f^CTT^ii 



Left gastro-epiploic artery 



2. The Hepatic Artery 



The hepatic artery [a. hepatica], the largest branch of the coeliac artery in the 

 foetus, but intermediate in the adult between the left gastric and the splenic, 

 comes off on the right side of the creliac artery, and, winding upward and to the 

 right to the porta (portal fissure) of the liver, there breaks up into two chief 

 branches for the supply of the right and left lobes of that organ. It at first courses 

 forward and to the right along the upper border of the head of the pancreas, behind 

 the posterior layer of the peritoneal omental bursa, to the upper margin of the 

 duodenum, where it passes forward beneath the layer of peritoneum forming 

 the floor of the epiploic foramen (of Winslow). It thus runs between the two 

 layers of the le.sscr omentum, and ascends along with the hepatic duct which lies 

 to its right, and with the; portal vein which lies behind it (figs. 480, 481). 



'i'hc; branches of the hepatic artery are: — (1) The right gastric; (2) the gastro- 

 duodenal; {'4) tJH! licpatic proj)er. 



(1) The right gastric artery [a. gastrica dextra] comes off from the hepatic just 

 as the latter vessel enters the lesser omentum, and, descending between the two 

 layers of that fold of peritoneum to the pylorus, there turns to the left, and, 

 ascending from right to left, anastomoses along the lesser curvature of the 

 stomach, as already mentioned, with the left gastric artery, which descends 

 from the opposite direction. 



(2) The gastro-duodenal art(!ry [a. gastroduodenalis] arises from the hepatic 



