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Hepatic artery proper: anatomy, location and function

The proper hepatic artery is the continuation of the common hepatic artery and supplies the liver and gallbladder. It supplies oxygenated blood to the liver, gallbladder and part of the bile ducts.

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Highlighted in the model: Hepatic artery proper. Click any part to read about it, or switch off “Highlight topic” to see the whole body. 3D data: BodyParts3D, © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0; meshes simplified and recoloured. The model is an adult male.

Hepatic artery proper at a glance

What it is
The proper hepatic artery is the continuation of the common hepatic artery and supplies the liver and gallbladder.
Location
It continues from the common hepatic artery after the gastroduodenal artery arises, ascends in the hepatoduodenal ligament in front of the portal vein and to the left of the bile duct and divides into right and left hepatic arteries. It usually gives the right gastric artery, and the cystic artery usually arises from the right hepatic artery.
Function
It supplies oxygenated blood to the liver, gallbladder and part of the bile ducts.
Body system
Cardiovascular · single, midline structure
FMA ID
FMA14772 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)

Key facts

  • It provides about a quarter of the blood flow to the liver but about half of its oxygen.

Clinical relevance

Variant hepatic arteries, such as a replaced right hepatic artery from the superior mesenteric artery, are common and must be identified before liver or pancreatic surgery.

Structures next to the hepatic artery proper

The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:

References

  1. Foundational Model of Anatomy: Hepatic artery proper (FMA14772). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
  2. OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §20.1 Structure and Function of Blood Vessels. Rice University, 2022.
  3. 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.

Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.