Anatomical study on origin, course and distribution of cranial and caudal mesenteric arteries in the White New Zealand rabbit (Orycotolagus cuniculus)

Abstract

The present study was carried out on fifteen healthy adult White New Zealand rabbit (Orycotolagus cuniculus) to clarify the obscure mesenteric arteries, which and their branches which are usually involved in intestinal surgery. The mesenteric artery is a high caliber vessel, 2cm in length dependent on the abdominal aorta, right below the emergence of the vessels destined for the liver and stomach. The animals were sacrificed, injecting diazepam (30 mg/kg) in jugular vein. Cannulation of the abdominal aorta, perfusion with warmed water (40ºC) and stained latex injection (Neoprene 450, Capitol Scientific, Austin, U.S.A, Red carmine stain) were performed, followed by fixation. With formalin (10%) the dissection and photographic documents (Casio Cyber-shot, 12.1 mega pixels) made it possible to systemize the arteries and define the vascular patterns of the viscera. The results prone that the cranial mesenteric artery of the White New Zealand rabbit (Orycotolagus cuniculus) arose from the abdominal aorta, at the level of the second lumbar vertebra, entered the cranial mesentery forming its root, then proceeded caudoventrally in the mesojejunum and continued as the last cecal artery. The cranial mesenteric artery gave off: -Caudal pancreaticoduodenal artery to the right lobe of the pancreas and the descending and ascending parts of the duodenum. Middle colic artery, a small vessel (frequently two) arising from the left wall and passing to the transverse colon, Eighteen to twenty jejunal arteries, Ileocecocolic artery to the ileum, cecum, ascending colon, transverse colon and the cranial part of the descending colon. The caudal mesenteric artery arose from the abdominal aorta at the level of the caudal border of the root of the 6 th lumbar transverse process, passed caudoventrally in the descending mesocolon, then divided into: left colic artery to the caudal two thirds of the descending colon, and cranial rectal artery to the cranial segment of the rectum. The obtained results were compared with their corresponding in the domestic animals, especially the domestic carnivores and laboratory animals.

Macroscopic Study of Celiac, Cranial Mesenteric and Caudal Mesenteric Arteries in the European Hare

“…The domesticated rabbit is one of the species most frequently used in the study of various diseases associated with the gastrointestinal tract as well as in the study of pharmacology, toxicology and surgery [12]. For this reason, the arterial system of its abdominal viscera has been described more in detail [1,2,5,7,8].…”

“…Anatomical studies dealing with blood vessels supplying the visceral organs of the abdominal cavity are very important. They help to better understand the arrangement of the principal intraabdominal arteries, their variations and anomalies and to avoid the obstruction of blood vessels in different clinical and pathological conditions as well as in surgical procedures [12].…”

“…The anatomical pattern of the branches arising from the ventral surface of the abdominal aorta in the domesticated rabbit have been described in detail in many different studies [1,2,4,5,6,7,8,10,12]. Despite the high occurrence of the European hare as a wild animal in Europe, the detailed knowledge of its arterial system is still lacking in the literature.…”

Macroscopic Aspects of the Cranial Mesenteric Artery (Arteria Mesenterica Cranialis) in Chinchilla Lanigera Species

“…Similarly with chinchillas, the cranial mesenteric artery is described as an individualized branch in case of rabbits (Rada, 2014;Uddin, et al, 2012;Barone, 1996), porcupine (Atalar and Ylmaz, 2005), raccoon ( Lima et al, 2010), opossum (Pinto e Silva et al, 2008) and nutria (Culau et al, 2008).…”

“…Studies on the cranial mesenteric artery have been performed in dog (Schmidt and Schoenau, 2007), capuchin monkey (Andrade et al ,2015), buffalo frog (Koichiro et al, 2001), nutria (Culau et al, 2008), porcupine (Atalar and Ylmaz, 2005), raccoon (Lima et al, 2010), opossum (Pinto e Silva et al, 2008), rabbit (Uddin et al, 2012;Rada, 2014) and guinea pig (Shively and Stump, 1975).…”