Blood Supply – Pancreas and Spleen

00:01 So if we look at the blood supply to the pancreas and the spleen.

00:04 Again we need to look at the coeliac trunk. We can see the coeliac trunk is giving rise to whole series of blood vessels.

00:10 It gives rise to a big branch that runs along the posterior aspect of the pancreas towards the spleen and that's the splenic artery. Coming off the splenic artery we have some small branches that supply the body and tail and neck of the pancreas.

00:27 But importantly at the head region we have what are known as the pancreaticoduodenal arteries.

00:33 So here we can see the pancreaticoduodenal arteries.

00:38 They supply the pancreas and the duodenum.

00:40 We have a superior pancreaticoduodenal artery and that comes from the coeliac trunk by way of various branches of gastroduodenal.

00:51 And that has superior pancreaticoduodenal artery as anterior and posterior branches which we can see running on the anterior and the posterior surface of the pancreas and the duodenum. Coming from the superior mesenteric artery we also have inferior pancreaticoduodenal arteries and these themself have anterior and posterior branches which supply the anterior and posterior surface of the duodenum and the pancreas.

01:23 We will explore these in more detail when we look at the arterial supply to the gastrointestinal tract in a later lecture.