Common hepatic artery at a glance
- What it is
- The common hepatic artery is a branch of the celiac trunk supplying the liver and nearby organs.
- Location
- It arises from the celiac trunk, runs along the upper border of the pancreas and divides into the gastroduodenal artery and the proper hepatic artery.
- Function
- It supplies the liver, gallbladder, stomach, duodenum and pancreas through its branches.
- Body system
- Cardiovascular · single, midline structure
- FMA ID
- FMA14771 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- The right gastric artery usually arises from the proper hepatic artery, but can come from the common hepatic or gastroduodenal artery.
- It runs to the right along the upper border of the pancreas, behind the lesser sac.
Structures next to the common hepatic artery
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Trunk of gastroduodenal artery · cardiovascular
- Hepatic portal vein · cardiovascular
- Pre-hepatic portal vein · cardiovascular
- Celiac artery · cardiovascular
- Celiac trunk · cardiovascular
- Cystic duct · digestive
- Diaphragm · muscular
- Hepatic artery proper · cardiovascular
- Inferior vena cava · cardiovascular
- Gastric artery · cardiovascular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Common hepatic artery (FMA14771). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
- OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §20.1 Structure and Function of Blood Vessels. Rice University, 2022.
- Mitsuhashi N. et al. (2009). BodyParts3D: 3D structure database for anatomical concepts. Nucleic Acids Research 37, D782–D785. Data © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0.
Related anatomy
Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.