Intestinal surgery is commonly performed to cure bowel obstruction in rabbits, but detailed descriptions of the arterial supply to the intestine are incomplete. We investigated anatomical variations of the distribution of the cranial mesenteric artery to the intestine in 33 New Zealand White rabbits by injecting colored latex into the arteries. The cranial mesenteric artery arose independently from the abdominal aorta at about 2.0 cm caudal to the celiac artery and branched off the pancreaticoduodenal, middle colic, ileocecocolic, jejunal and ileal arteries. One or occasionally two caudal pancreaticoduodenal arteries supplied the distal duodenum, and one to three middle colic arteries supplied the transverse colon and the initial portion of the descending colon. The ileocecocolic artery arose distal to the middle colic arteries and provided the right colic, ileocecal and appendicular arteries, and branches to the proximal colon, with various branching patterns, which were grouped into four major types. These arteries and branches supplied the ileum, cecum, appendix and proximal colon. The cranial mesenteric artery also provided the jejunal arteries (predominantly 17; range 11-21) and one ileal artery supplying the jejunum and proximal ileum, respectively. The results show that the distribution patterns of the cranial mesenteric artery to the intestine in the rabbit are highly specialized to this species. Such specialization should always be considered when performing intestinal surgery in rabbits.
ABSTRACT. The rabbit, which is widely used as an experimental animal and is also popular as a companion animal, has a flat and elongated spleen with the longitudinal hilus running along its visceral surface. The spleen receives via the hilus an arterial supply that is essential for splenic nutrition and normal functioning. However, the distribution and variation of the arteries to the spleen have not been studied in detail. This study investigated anatomical variations of splenic arterial supply in 33 New Zealand White rabbits with a colored latex injection into arteries. We also examined whether the length of the spleen correlated with the number of the splenic branches of the splenic artery. The splenic artery always arose as the first independent branch of the celiac artery and ran along the splenic hilus to usually provide 6 (range, 3 to 10) splenic branches to the spleen. There was a moderate correlation (R=0.6) between the number of splenic branches and the longitudinal length of the spleen. The splenic branches often arose as a trunk or trunks in common with short gastric arteries. The number of common trunk(s) was usually 1 (range, 0 to 4). The data showed that the pattern and number of arterial branches to the spleen varied according to the individual animal, suggesting that such variations should be considered when performing experimental and veterinary surgical treatments in rabbits.
Gastric stasis is common in rabbits, and gastrotomy may be performed to cure this pathological condition. Detailed descriptions of the arterial supply to the stomach are essential for this surgical operation, but published descriptions are limited. Here, we investigated anatomical variations of the arterial supply to the stomach in 43 New Zealand White rabbits by injecting colored latex into arteries. We observed that the left gastric artery that arose as the second branch from the celiac artery provided 1–3 parietal and 1–3 visceral branches to the stomach, with various branching patterns depending on the case. In 34 of 43 cases, the left gastric artery ended upon entering the gastric wall at the lesser curvature, whereas in the remaining cases, the artery continued as the hepatic artery without entering the gastric wall. The right gastric artery that branched off from the gastroduodenal artery also supplied the lesser curvature sinistrally but did not anastomose with the left gastric artery. In 40 cases, the hepatic artery provided 1–4 pyloric branches. In the fundic region, the short gastric arteries arose from the splenic artery and varied in number from 2 to 6. The right and left gastroepiploic arteries anastomosed to give 2–7 branches to the greater curvature. The results showed that many variations occurred in the arteries supplying the rabbit stomach, suggesting that such variations should be considered when performing veterinary surgical treatments in rabbits.
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