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

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to describe the branching schema of the ventral branches of the abdominal aorta: the a. celiaca, the a. mesenterica cranialis and the a. mesenterica caudalis. The study was carried out on nine adult European hares using the corrosion cast technique. After the euthanasia, the vascular network was perfused with saline. Batson’s corrosion casting kit No. 17 was used as a casting medium. After polymerisation of the medium, the maceration was carried out in KOH solution. In all specimens, the first branch originating from the a. celiaca was the a. lienalis. The a. hepatica was present as the second branch in four cases and as the third branch also in four cases. The first branch of the a. mesenterica cranialis was the a. colica media in seven cases. The second branch was represented by the a. pancreaticoduodenalis caudalis also in seven cases. Two aa. jejunales originated as the third branch. In seven cases, the fourth branch formed the truncus jejunalis and the fifth branch the a. ileocecalis. The a. mesenterica caudalis had a uniform arrangement in all of the specimens. The results enabled us to conclude that there was higher variability of the branching pattern of the a. celiaca in comparison with the a. mesenterica cranialis and the a. mesenterica caudalis in the European hare.

A case report of a rare ramification pattern and distribution area of the mesenteric arteries in a Japanese White rabbit (<i>Oryctolagus cuniculus</i>)

“…In the rare case reported here, however, the cranial mesenteric artery only gave rise to the caudal pancreaticoduodenal, jejunal and ileal arteries, whereas the caudal mesenteric artery gave origin to the ileocecocolic, middle colic, right colic, left colic and cranial rectal arteries. Although prior rabbit studies have not reported this untypical branching pattern [2,6,7,9], Abe et al [1] and Covanțev et al [4] reported a similar case in humans, in which the cranial mesenteric artery supplied the proximal small portion of the ascending colon and cecum [1], or cecum only [4] via the ileocecal artery. Furthermore, they also found that the caudal mesenteric artery supplied most of the colon via the right colic, cranial left colic and caudal left colic arteries [1], or via the right colic, middle colic, accessory middle colic, left colic and accessory left colic arteries [4].…”

“…The rabbit intestinal tract is mainly supplied by the cranial and caudal mesenteric arteries which originate independently from the abdominal aorta [3,6,7,9].…”

“…In general, the rabbit cranial mesenteric artery supplies the duodenum, jejunum, ileum, cecum, proximal colon and ascending and transverse distal colon via the caudal pancreaticoduodenal, jejunal, ileal, ileocecocolic, right colic and middle colic arteries [3,6,7,9], whereas the caudal mesenteric artery supplies the descending distal colon and rectum via the left colic and cranial rectal arteries [3,6,7]. Prior rabbit studies have shown that the distribution area of the cranial and caudal mesenteric arteries remained constant across all cases observed, although frequent individual variations have been reported for the branches of the cranial mesenteric artery [6,7,9].…”

“…For ease of comparison to the arteries in the rabbit, "cranial" and "caudal" were used for arteries in humans instead of "superior" and "inferior". The common branching pattern of the mesenteric arteries in the rabbit is that the cranial mesenteric artery gives rise to the caudal pancreaticoduodenal, jejunal, ileal, ileocecocolic, middle colic and right colic arteries, whereas the caudal mesenteric artery branches off the left colic and cranial rectal arteries [3,6,7,9]. In the rare case reported here, however, the cranial mesenteric artery only gave rise to the caudal pancreaticoduodenal, jejunal and ileal arteries, whereas the caudal mesenteric artery gave origin to the ileocecocolic, middle colic, right colic, left colic and cranial rectal arteries.…”