Superior mesenteric artery at a glance
- What it is
- An unpaired artery of the midgut.
- Location
- It arises from the aorta at L1 behind the pancreatic neck and runs in the root of the mesentery, giving inferior pancreaticoduodenal, jejunal, ileal, ileocolic, right colic and middle colic arteries.
- Function
- It supplies the lower duodenum, jejunum, ileum, cecum, ascending colon and most of the transverse colon.
- Body system
- Cardiovascular · single, midline structure
- FMA ID
- FMA14749 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- It supplies the midgut derivatives.
- The left renal vein and the third part of the duodenum pass between it and the aorta.
Clinical relevance
Acute mesenteric ischaemia from embolism or thrombosis in this artery is life threatening. Compression of the duodenum between it and the aorta causes superior mesenteric artery syndrome.
Structures next to the superior mesenteric artery
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Superior mesenteric vein · cardiovascular
- Inferior mesenteric vein · cardiovascular
- Ileocolic artery · cardiovascular
- Ileocolic vein · cardiovascular
- Marginal artery of colon · cardiovascular
- Transverse mesocolon · digestive
- Anterior inferior pancreaticoduodenal artery · cardiovascular
- Ascending lumbar vein · cardiovascular
- Ileal artery · cardiovascular
- Ileal vein · cardiovascular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Superior mesenteric artery (FMA14749). 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.