• Anatomy and Cell Biology
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.269-276
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• 2022

Vascular anomalies are a serendipitous finding during surgeries and diagnostic angiography. Such variations are frequently encountered in the abdominal region. These anomalies are usually asymptomatic but the presence of hepatic arterial variations may lead to injuries of the liver during surgery. The present study was conducted on 35 adult embalmed cadavers, 31 males, 4 females from August 2015 to December 2021 in the Department of Anatomy, Amrita School of Medicine, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi. In this study of 35 cadavers, we present 3 variants: an accessory right hepatic artery, replaced common hepatic artery, replaced common hepatic artery anastomosis with accessory left hepatic artery and an arc of Buhler. One of our variants has not yielded a precedent in literature search. We have compared these variants with Michels and Hiatt classification. It is known that different variants arise at distinct stages of embryonic development. As specialists in anatomy, we have tried to correlate the variants in our study with their embryological origins.

• Anatomy and Cell Biology
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.370-377
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• 2024

Anticipating a wide range of morphological variations of arterial anatomy of foregut derivatives beyond the classical pattern, a precise understanding is pertinent to preoperative diagnosis, operative procedure and to avoid potentially devastating post-operative outcome during various traumatic and non-traumatic vascular insult of foregut. The study aimed to revisit the morphological details and update unusual configurations of arteries of foregut to establish clinico-anatomical correlations. This study described the detailed branching pattern of coeliac trunk (CT) as principal artery of foregut with source & course of hepatic, gastric, duodenal and pancreatic branches in 58 cadaveric dissections. Based on morphology, different types and subtypes were made. The descriptions were explained using figures and pertinent tables. Among classical branches of CT, splenic artery was found as most stable whereas other two branches were found to be most variable with missing common hepatic artery in 11 cases. In addition to classical trifurcation (65.52%), different types of bifurcation (12.07%) and tetrafurcations (22.41%) of CT were observed. Regarding variations of hepatic arteries (27.59%), both non-classical origin and accessory hepatic branches were found. In case of gastric branches, more variant origins were seen with right gastric (50%) as compared to left gastric artery (34.48%). Other morphological variations included non-classical origin of gastro-duodenal artery (18.96%) along with presence of accessory pancreatic (17.13%) and duodenal arteries (6.38%). Awareness of anatomical variations regarding circulatory dynamics of foregut is worth knowing in order to facilitate successful planning of surgery involving upper abdominal organs with least complications.