Superior pancreatic nodes
Nodi pancreatici superiores
A chain of abdominal lymph nodes running along the upper border of the pancreas with the splenic artery, behind the stomach.
At a glance
- English
- Superior pancreatic nodes
- Latin (TA2)
- Nodi pancreatici superiores
- System
- Lymphatic
- Region
- Trunk
- Side
- Single, on the midline
About the superior pancreatic nodes
The superior pancreatic nodes lie along the upper edge of the body and tail of the pancreas, where the splenic artery winds to the left towards the spleen. They sit behind the stomach in the back wall of the omental bursa, the lesser sac, and are covered by its peritoneum. Together with the inferior pancreatic nodes on the lower border they make up the pancreatic nodes of the coeliac system.
Their arrangement follows the vessel rather than the organ alone. The chain begins near the coeliac trunk and extends to the left until it meets the splenic nodes at the hilum of the spleen, so in life the two groups merge into one long line along the splenic artery.
Lymph comes to them from the body and tail of the pancreas, from the back wall of the stomach, and from the spleen through the splenic nodes. Their outflow passes to the right along the artery to the coeliac nodes around the coeliac trunk, and from there to the intestinal trunk and the cisterna chyli.
These nodes are often involved in cancer of the pancreatic body and tail and in gastric cancer, especially tumours on the posterior wall or near the greater curvature. In gastric cancer surgery the nodes along the splenic artery are a defined station that is removed in an extended lymph node dissection. They may also enlarge in chronic pancreatitis and in lymphoma, and on a scan they can be mistaken for a mass in the pancreas itself.
Course and drainage
- Begins at
- Afferent vessels from the body and tail of the pancreas, the posterior wall of the stomach, and the spleen by way of the splenic nodes.
- Drains into
- Efferent vessels run along the splenic artery to the coeliac nodes.
- Drains
- Filters lymph from the pancreatic body and tail, the back of the stomach and the spleen. A common site of spread for pancreatic and gastric cancer, removed in extended gastric node dissection.
Anthromica
See the superior pancreatic nodes where it really sits, with every layer of the body around it.
- Every layer, one body. Peel from muscle to bone, nerve, vessel and organ, and turn it any way.
- English and Latin. Every structure named the way your exam names it.
- Quiz until it sticks. Short drills on the structures you keep missing.
Free to start. No card.
