Clinical significance of aberrant hepatic artery arising from superior mesenteric artery in liver cancer and gastric cancer operations

Abstract

Objective To analyze the clinical significance of aberrant hepatic artery which originated from superior mesenteric artery in liver cancer and gastric cancer operations.Method Four hundred liver cancer patients who underwent digital subtraction angiography (DSA) and multislice spiral computed tomography angiography (MSCTA) and 86 gastric cancer patients who underwent MSCTA between June 2008 and June 2010 and operated at the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University were included in this study.Preoperatively,the origins of the aberrant hepatic arteries from superior mesenteric arteries were detected by medical imaging.Postoperatively,immunohistochemistry of lymphoid tissues around the aberrant hepatic arteries of the gastric cancer patients were performed using recombinant human cytokeratin 20 (CK20) and carcino-embryonic antigen (CEA) to determine the incidence of lymph node metastases around the aberrant arteries.Results Among 486 patients,49 patients with liver cancer and 14 patients with gastric cancer had an aberrant hepatic artery which originated from the superior mesenteric artery.The rate was 12.96％ (63/486).The hepatic artery ran in front of the pancreas in 2 patients (3.17％) and behind the pancreas in 61 patients (96.83％).Immunohistochemical analyses of CK20 and CEA were negative which revealed no metastases in the lymphoid tissues surrounding the aberrant arteries.Conclusions Aberrant hepatic artery originated from the superior mesenteric artery can be classified into the pre-pancreas type and postpancreas type.The majority of aberrant hepatic artery belonged to the post-pancreas type.The clinical significance of aberrant hepatic artery is that the hepatic hilar lymph nodes should be dissected in liver cancer and gastric cancer operations. Key words: Aberrant; Hepatic artery; Tumor; Operation