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Unusual anatomical variation: tetrafurcation of the celiac trunk

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A Letter to the Editor to this article was published on 09 August 2019

Abstract

The celiac trunk is one of the main sources of vascularization of the supracolic abdominal compartment. It arises from the abdominal aorta, at the level of T12–L1 vertebrae and classically branches into the splenic artery, common hepatic artery, and left gastric artery. We report here an atypical branching pattern of the celiac trunk, found during the dissection of a 60-year-old female’s formalin-fixed cadaver. The atypically celiac trunk gave rise to four branches: a common trunk for left and right inferior phrenic arteries, an accessory left gastric artery, the common hepatic artery, and a splenogastric trunk. Knowledge in detail about normal anatomy and variation in the branching pattern of the celiac trunk is important in surgical, oncological, and radiological interventional procedures and must be taken into account to avoid possible complications.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge Mihaela Damen who made a drawing of the present case.

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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Authors

Contributions

LG: dissection, data analysis. NSD: data collection, manuscript writing. MAV: data analysis, data collection, manuscript writing. AMJ: data analysis, data collection, manuscript writing. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Monica Adriana Vaida.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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The research was conducted ethically in accordance with The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki).

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Grigoriță, L., Damen, N.S., Vaida, M.A. et al. Unusual anatomical variation: tetrafurcation of the celiac trunk. Surg Radiol Anat 41, 1399–1403 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-019-02286-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-019-02286-9

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