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Right gonadal arteries passing dorsally to the inferior vena cava: embryological hypotheses

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Abstract

The right gonadal artery (RGA) usually arises from the anterior wall of the abdominal aorta below the level of the renal arteries and veins, passes ventrally to the inferior vena cava (IVC), and then runs obliquely downward to reach the pelvic cavity. In this study, we observed 59 Japanese cadavers and found that in eight of them (13.6%), the RGA’s passed dorsally to the IVC. Together with the various courses of RGAs reported in the literature, we here divided the courses into four subtypes, due to the relationship to the left renal vein and the IVC, of superior, middle and lower types (L1 = ventrally, L2 = dorsal of IVC). Superior type was seen in 3.6%. Lower types were fount to in the most cases (L1: 83.5%, L2: 13.6%). The middle type was not realized. The classification of this variations make it easy to describe the RGA’s passing below the level of the left renal vein. RGA can pass either ventrally or dorsally to the IVC. RGAs passing at or above the level of the left renal vein run dorsally but not ventrally to the IVC. The variations in the origin, course and branching of RGAs are attributed to development of the IVC.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (18791137) from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture, Japan. The authors wish to thank Mr. Koichi Koyama (Tokyo Medical University, Tokyo, Japan) for his excellent technical support. Our sincere thanks go to the Kanehara Ichiro Foundation Tokyo, which has encouraged this work by means of the Yokochi Prize for the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anatomy, Tokyo Medical University, 6-1-1 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 160-8402, Japan

    Hayato Terayama, Shuang-Qin Yi, Munekazu Naito, Ning Qu, Shuich Hirai, Miyuki Kitaoka & Masahiro Itoh

  2. Department of Anatomy and Neuroembryology, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Japan

    Shuang-Qin Yi

  3. Department of Anatomy, Kanagawa Dental College, Kanagawa, Japan

    Akira Iimura

  4. Department of Anatomy, Showa University School of Medicine, 1-5-8, Hatanodai, Shinagawa-ku, 142-8555, Tokyo, Japan

    Hiroshi Moriyama

  5. Institut für Anatomie der Universität Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

    Hanno Steinke

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  1. Hayato Terayama
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  2. Shuang-Qin Yi
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  3. Munekazu Naito
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  7. Akira Iimura
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  8. Hiroshi Moriyama
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  9. Hanno Steinke
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  10. Masahiro Itoh
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Correspondence to Hayato Terayama.

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Terayama, H., Yi, SQ., Naito, M. et al. Right gonadal arteries passing dorsally to the inferior vena cava: embryological hypotheses. Surg Radiol Anat 30, 657–661 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-008-0378-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-008-0378-6

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