Abdominal aorta
Aorta · T12 L1 L3
Enters the abdomen through the aortic hiatus at T12 and bifurcates at L4. Gives three unpaired ventral gut arteries in descending order — coeliac trunk (T12), superior mesenteric (L1) and inferior mesenteric (L3) — each dedicated to one embryonic gut segment.
Detail
- Ventral branches
- Coeliac trunk T12, SMA L1, IMA L3
- Bifurcation
- L4 into common iliac arteries (level of the iliac crests)
- Segments served
- Foregut, midgut, hindgut respectively
When it goes wrong
Atherosclerotic stenosis or occlusion of at least two of the three trunks (single-vessel disease is common and silent)
Chronic mesenteric ischaemia: crampy epigastric pain 15–30 min after eating, fear of food (sitophobia) and marked weight loss in an arteriopath
Infrarenal cross-clamp and IMA ligation or coverage during AAA repair
Left and sigmoid colon depend on the marginal artery from the middle colic; a few percent develop ischaemic colitis with bloody diarrhoea on days 1–3
Practise this structure
1 question in the bank tagged Arterial Supply.