Surgical Anatomy of Coeliac Trunk Variations an Autopsy Series of 40 Dissections

Abstract

In modern surgical radiological and transplantation procedures an anatomic vascular variations is of greater importance The coeliac axis arterial patterns are of importance in planning all surgical performances mainly liver transplantation and radiological procedures in the upper abdomen This is to avoid surgical mistakes which may lead to serious consequences to the patient and also medico legal implications The celiac orcoeliacartery is also known as the coeliac trunk coeliac axis or truncus coeliakus It is the first major branch of the abdominal aorta The coeliac artery supplies oxygenated bloodto the liver stomach abdominalesophagus spleenand the superior half of both the duodenum and the pancreas These structures are derived from the embryonic foregut The coeliac artery is an essential source of blood since the interconnections with the other major arteries of the gut are not sufficient to sustain adequate perfusion Thus it cannot be safely ligated in a living person and obstruction of the celiac artery will lead to necrosisof the structures it supplies The coeliac artery is the only major artery that nourishes the abdominal digestive organs that does not have a similarly named vein The variations in the coeliac axis and its branches were observed frequently during the routine dissections of the abdomen when teaching the undergraduate students The current study involves 40 cadavers 34 males and 6 females in a period of 3 years and we observed anomalies of coeliac axis in 4 male cadavers The purpose of this study was to evaluate these variationswith respect to their impact on visceral surgery and also to determine the comprehensive spectrum in the variations of prevalence of coeliac axis Therefore a thorough knowledge of variation of coeliac trunk is important for proper pre-operative diagnosis and planning of surgical and radiological interventions Presence of arterial variations may result in erroneous interpretation of angiograms