Anatomical distribution of the hepatic artery in sheep

Abstract

The present study was conducted in twenty two apparently healthy sheep irrespective of sex. Dissection, corrostion casting and radio-opaque techniques have been applied to show the different ramifications of the hepatic artery vascular branching pattern with its topographic relations in sheep. The results revealed that the common hepatic artery originated from the coeliac artery, which was divided into right and left hepatic arteries at hilus. The right hepatic artery further divided into common trunk, caudate process artery and cystic artery. The common trunk gave rise to right superior and inferior interlobular arterys which were mainly supplied blood to superior, inferior region of right lobe. The right central interlobular artery originated along with right inferior interlobular artery which was supplied blood to diaphragmatic region of right lobe. The caudate process of the caudate lobe and gall bladder was mainly supplied by the caudate process artery and cystic artery respectively. The left hepatic artery was subdivided into left medial and lateral branches. The left medial branch gave rise to the left superior and intermediate inter lobular arterys, which was supplied to superior and intermediate region of the left lobe respectively. The left lateral branch gave rise to quadrate lobe artery and left inferior inter lobular artery which was supplied to various regions of quadrate lobe and left inferior region of the left lobe respectively.