Anomalous origin and vulnerable course of left colic artery in relation to the pancreas—A case report.docVIP

Vol.1, No.4, 83-86 (2013) Forensic Medicine and Anatomy Research /10.4236/fmar.2013.14018 Anomalous origin and vulnerable course of left colic artery in relation to the pancreas—A case report Satheesha Badagabettu Nayak , Surekha Devadasa Shetty, Srinivasa Rao Sirasanagandla, * Ashwini Aithal, Swamy Ravindra Shanthakumar Melaka Manipal Medical College (Manipal Campus), Manipal University, Manipal, India; * Corresponding Author: nayaksathish@ Received 24 May 2013; revised 16 July 2013; accepted 25 July 2013 Copyright ? 2013 Satheesha Badagabettu Nayak et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attri- bution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ABSTRACT and the inferior mesenteric artery. The celiac trunk sup- plies the derivatives of the foregut; the superior mesen- teric artery supplies the derivatives of the midgut and the inferior mesenteric artery supplies the derivatives of the hindgut. Normally, the left colic artery is the first branch of inferior mesenteric artery. It ascends retroperitoneally and divides into ascending and descending branches. The ascending branch passes anterior to the left kidney and supplies the left one third of the transverse colon and the upper part of the descending colon, whereas the de- scending branch supplies the lower part of the descend- ing colon [1]. The normal course of the left colic artery is not closely related to the pancreas. The pancreas, as we know, is a mixed gland, which is partly exocrine and partly endo- crine in function. It is a soft lobulated, retroperitoneal gland that extends from the C-loop of duodenum to the splenic hilum, obliquely across the vertebral column. It is closely related to the abdominal aorta, inferior vena cava, coeliac trunk and its branches, superior mesenteric ves- sels, splenic and portal veins. Pa