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Pre-hepatic portal vein: anatomy, location and function

The portion of the portal vein outside the liver. It carries blood from the gut, spleen and pancreas to the liver.

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Highlighted in the model: Pre-hepatic portal vein. 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.

Pre-hepatic portal vein at a glance

What it is
The portion of the portal vein outside the liver.
Location
It runs from the union of the splenic and superior mesenteric veins to the porta hepatis. It receives the right gastric vein, often the left gastric vein (which may instead join the splenic vein), and sometimes the cystic vein.
Function
It carries blood from the gut, spleen and pancreas to the liver.
Body system
Cardiovascular · single, midline structure
FMA ID
FMA71904 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)

Key facts

  • It lies in the free edge of the lesser omentum.

Clinical relevance

Its ligament forms the front wall of the epiploic foramen. Clamping this ligament (Pringle maneuver) stops portal and hepatic arterial inflow to the liver.

Structures next to the pre-hepatic portal vein

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

References

  1. Foundational Model of Anatomy: Pre-hepatic portal vein (FMA71904). 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.