Henry Gray (1825–1861). Anatomy of the Human Body. 1918.
pages 609
| The Right Colic Artery (a. colica dextra) arises from about the middle of the concavity of the superior mesenteric artery, or from a stem common to it and the ileocolic. It passes to the right behind the peritoneum, and in front of the right internal spermatic or ovarian vessels, the right ureter and the Psoas major, toward the middle of the ascending colon; sometimes the vessel lies at a higher level, and crosses the descending part of the duodenum and the lower end of the right kidney. At the colon it divides into a descending branch, which anastomoses with the ileocolic, and an ascending branch, which anastomoses with the middle colic. These branches form arches, from the convexity of which vessels are distributed to the ascending colon. |
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FIG. 537– The inferior mesenteric artery and its branches. (See enlarged image) |
| The Middle Colic Artery (a. colica media) arises from the superior mesenteric just below the pancreas and, passing downward and forward between the layers of the transverse mesocolon, divides into two branches, right and left; the former anastomoses with the right colic; the latter with the left colic, a branch of the inferior mesenteric. The arches thus formed are placed about two fingers’ breadth from the transverse colon, to which they distribute branches. |
| The inferior mesenteric artery (a. mesenterica inferior) (Fig. 537) supplies the left half of the transverse part of the colon, the whole of the descending and iliac parts of the colon, the sigmoid colon, and the greater part of the rectum. It is smaller than the superior mesenteric, and arises from the aorta, about 3 or 4 cm. |