Celiac trunk
Latin: Truncus coeliacus
Location: Abdomen
View the celiac trunk in 3DCourse
A short, wide artery from the aorta's front at T12 just below the diaphragmatic crura, dividing almost immediately into its three branches within the coeliac plexus's tangle.
Branches
Left gastric (stomach's lesser curve and oesophagus), common hepatic (liver and gallbladder; via the right gastric and gastroduodenal arteries the lesser and greater curvatures, duodenum and pancreatic head), splenic (pancreas, spleen, fundus via short gastrics, greater curvature via the left gastro-omental).
Clinical relevance
The foregut's arterial master — posterior duodenal ulcers erode the gastroduodenal artery and lesser-curve gastric ulcers the left gastric artery; embolisation of these branches controls ulcer bleeding when endoscopy fails.
Educational anatomy reference, not medical advice. About this content.