The splenic artery: origin, morphometry, topography of the vessel in relation to the pancreas, main pancreatic branches

Abstract

The interest in the anatomy of the splenic artery, which had fallen in the middle of the XXI century, has flared up with renewed vigor at the end of the previous century and the beginning of the twenty-first century. The introduction of new diagnostic techniques, such as a computer tomography (CT) angiography, and the increase in surgical interventions on organs of the splenic artery basin, particularly the pancreas, especially with the use of minimally invasive, interventional, and robotic technologies, have only increased interest in the anatomy of this vessel. Material and methods. A systematic literature review of the online databases PubMed, Embase, CyberLeninka, and GoogleScholar covering 1910–2021 was conducted, using the following keywords and their combinations: “rheumatic trunk”, “splenic artery”, “splenic vessels”, “pancreatic body and tail arteries”, “blood supply to the pancreas”, “anatomy”, “variants” and “anomalies”. Results and discussion. All currently available cases of congenital absence of the splenic artery were described and analyzed. According to anatomical and radiological studies over the past 100 years, the main source of the splenic artery is the splenic trunk, and the frequency of this variant ranges from 90.6 % to 100 %. According to the results of morphometry, the length of the splenic artery varies from 2 to 32 cm and the diameter (caliber) from 4 to 11 mm. In relation to the pancreas, the splenic artery may be located suprapancreatically (63.3–99.33 % cases), anteropancreatically (prepancreatically) (4.2–18.5 %), intrapancreatically (1.2–6.66 %) or retropancreatically (2.8–36.6 %). The major pancreatic branches of the splenic artery are the dorsal, great and caudal pancreatic arteries with frequency 24.7–47.2 %, 45.7–100 % and 26–100 %, respectively. Conclusions. A systematic review of the literature showed differences in the topography of the splenic artery in anatomical and radiological studies. Original studies with the inclusion of both sufficient anatomical and radiological material, with the unified statistical approaches and data interpretation strictly considering the international anatomical nomenclature seem to be promising.