hi let's talk about the abdominal aorta the abdominal aorta is the part of the descending
aorta that is inferior to the diaphragm it runs posterior to the diaphragm sometimes we say
through but in actuality it is posterior to the diaphragm at the level of about
t12 and it terminates at about the level of l4 into the common iliac arteries
so as you may recall from our earlier discussions there are visceral branches which may either be
anteriorly oriented such as the celiac trunk which is about at the level of t12 so that celiac
trunk on t12 the superior mesenteric artery or the sma which is about the level of l1
and then there are renal arteries and here is an accessory renal artery
also about the level of l1 we have gonadal arteries
that supply the gonads with blood that are approximately the level of l2 we have the
ima or the inferior mesenteric artery approximately at the level of l3
and we have some other minor arterial branches that uh that we won't go into detail
here on and of course parietal branches that are going to exit the abdominal aorta posterior
laterally that we also won't discuss here so let's take a look at the celiac trunk most people
are rather surprised when they first see the celiac trunk because typically there isn't much
of a trunk to it at all but rather three immediate branches that sort of blossom from the t12 level
of the abdominal aorta and here we can see there the crura of the of the diaphragm so let's
let's take a look at these branches so this first branch is the splenic artery the splenic artery is
a rather impressive tortuous artery that's going to run posterior to the stomach oftentimes it can
be found you know in close association with the pancreas here's the pancreas and that continues on
posterior to the stomach here and it's heading out to the its namesake the spleen that splenic artery
will not only supply the spleen with blood it will also supply the fundus of the stomach with blood
through short gastric arteries and it will supply in part the greater curvature of the stomach which
is this element here with blood through the left gastro omental artery this is the left
gastro-omental artery which we can see here which also supplies the greater momentum with blood
the next branch of the celiac is the left gastric this left gastric
heads for the lesser curvature of the stomach to supply it with blood and then we have
the common hepatic artery the common hepatic artery has two terminal branches
there's the gastro gastroduodenal artery and the hepatic artery proper that hepatic artery proper
will typically give off the right oops the right gastric artery that right gastric artery heads
towards the lesser curvature of the stomach to anastomose with the left gastric artery
and then we have the bifurcation into the left and right hepatic branches
and typically off one of those or off of the hepatic artery proper
the branch to the gallbladder as well um the gastroduodenal artery descends down
inferiorly there and it will send off the right gastro duodenal artery
so the right gastroduodenal artery meets up with the left gastroduodenal artery
and there's an anastomosis there for the greater curvature of the stomach
so the gastro-duodenal arteries supply the greater curvature of the stomach the gastric arteries
supply the lesser curvature of the stomach and then there are pancreaticoduodenal arteries
that supply the head of the pancreas and duodenum with blood
the next major visceral branch is the superior mesenteric artery that superior mesenteric artery
will have an inferior pancreaticoduodenal branch that anastomosis with the pancreaticoduodenal
branches from the gastroduodenal artery of the common hepatic artery from the celiac trunk so
that represents an anastomosis between sma and celiac and then in terms of the
sma we'll have intestinal branches coming off of the main trunk of the sma here
so branches to the the jejunum and the ilium and these have been cut here because
that portion of the gut tube has been removed and then we have various
colic branches so we'll have a middle colic branch going up to serve the transverse
colon we'll have a right colic branch going out to serve the ascending colon
and then we'll have an ileocolic branch going down to serve portions of the ascending colon
the cecum the ileocecal valve and portions of the terminal ileum now all of these colic branches
middle right and ileocolic don't directly vascularise the gut tube but rather they connect
with an artery known as the marginal artery that rides along the margin of the colon
that i've just outlined now what's interesting is that the inferior mesenteric artery
has several branches among them the left colic artery which feeds directly into the marginal
artery so that marginal artery it's of the superior mesenteric artery but it is a significant
anastomosis between the sma and the ima the remaining branches of the inferior mesenteric
artery include the sigmoid arteries which supply the sigmoid colon with blood and the superior
rectal artery which supplies the rectum with blood finally
we can see the gonadal arteries which supply the gonads with blood as direct branches of
the abdominal aorta and we can see them descending down into the abdominal cavity there we can also
see the relationship between the sma and the left renal vein which crosses the abdominal aorta there
here's the ima again and then here is that bifurcation of the abdominal aorta into the
common iliac arteries which is approximately at the level of l4 and we'll see how those common
iliac arteries divide into the external iliac and the internal iliac arteries as
we discuss the arteries of the pelvis and the lower limb thank you very much for your time