The right accessory hepatic artery; a case report and review of the literature

Abstract

A rare case of the right accessory hepatic artery was observed during multidetector-row Computer Tomography examination in a 65-year-old Caucasian female with portal vein thrombosis. This artery arose from the common hepatic artery near the celiac trunk and ran behind the hepatic portal vein to the right lobe of the liver. The diameter of the right accessory hepatic artery when compared to the diameter of the proper hepatic and common hepatic arteries corroborated the functional importance of this vessel. In-depth knowledge of not only "standard" anatomy but also of the numerous angiological variants is necessary in clinical practice. The variation shown in our case has very rarely been reported in medical literature.