An accessory right hepatic artery arising from superior mesenteric artery and its clinical significance

Background: Knowledge of hepatic arterial vascularization and its variations have a significant relevance for the daily practice of hepato-biliary surgeon as well as radiologists and anatomists. The right hepatic artery normally arises from the hepatic artery proper, the continuation of the common hepatic artery which is a branch of celiac trunk. Sometimes the anatomical arterial variations are also very common in human beings especially in hepatic region. During routine dissections for undergraduate medical students at Department of Anatomy, in a 75 -year-old male cadaver, we found the right accessory hepatic artery arises from the superior mesenteric artery which supplied the right lobe of the liver along with normal right hepatic artery. In additio n, a direct branch to the left lobe of the liver was seen arising from common hepatic artery. The arterial anomaly can be enlightened by embryonic development. The knowledge of existence of aberrant hepatic arteries, either accessory or replacing, is important because they may influence surgical and interventional radiological procedures.