Common hepatic artery

Arteria hepatica communis

CardiovascularBlood vesselsAbdomen

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What it is

Runs to the right from the coeliac trunk along the upper border of the pancreatic head, gives off the gastroduodenal artery and continues as the proper hepatic artery up the free edge of the lesser omentum to the porta hepatis, where it splits into right and left hepatic arteries.

Function

Supplies the liver, gallbladder (cystic artery), stomach (right gastric) and duodenum and pancreatic head (gastroduodenal).

Size

~5 mm diameter.

Clinical note

Provides only ~25% of the liver's blood (the portal vein gives the rest) but about half its oxygen; variant origins (e.g. a replaced right hepatic artery from the SMA) are common and matter in surgery.