Proper hepatic artery

At a glance

English

Proper hepatic artery

Latin (TA2)

Arteria hepatica propria

System

Artery

Region

Trunk

Side

Single, on the midline

About the proper hepatic artery

The proper hepatic artery is the part of the hepatic artery that carries blood into the liver and gallbladder. The common hepatic artery, one of the three branches of the coeliac trunk, runs to the right along the upper border of the pancreas and gives off the gastroduodenal artery; beyond that point the vessel is called the proper hepatic artery.

It climbs in the free right edge of the lesser omentum, the hepatoduodenal ligament, towards the porta hepatis. In this ligament it lies to the left of the common bile duct and in front of the portal vein; the three together make up the portal triad, which forms the front wall of the opening into the lesser sac (the epiploic foramen). Near its start, or sometimes from the common hepatic or gastroduodenal artery instead, it gives the right gastric artery, which heads left along the stomach's lesser curvature, where it joins the left gastric artery.

Close to the porta it ends by splitting into a right and a left hepatic artery. The right hepatic artery usually passes behind the common hepatic duct and, in the triangle formed with the cystic duct and liver (Calot's triangle), gives the cystic artery to the gallbladder. The left hepatic artery goes to the left lobe and often gives a middle hepatic branch to segment IV. Within the liver the branches follow the portal vein and bile ducts segment by segment.

Variation is common. A replaced or accessory right hepatic artery may instead come off the superior mesenteric artery and run behind the portal vein, and a replaced or accessory left hepatic artery may come from the left gastric artery. These patterns matter in gallbladder removal, liver transplantation and pancreatic surgery. The hepatic artery provides only about a quarter of the liver's blood, the portal vein supplying the rest, but it is the main supply to the bile ducts.

Course and supply

Arises from

Continues from the common hepatic artery beyond the origin of the gastroduodenal artery.

Ends in

Splits near the porta hepatis into a right and a left hepatic artery; usually gives the right gastric artery on the way.

Supplies

Supplies the liver, the gallbladder (through the cystic artery), the bile ducts and, through the right gastric artery, the stomach's lesser curvature.