lienal

The lienal artery is remarkable for its large size in proportion to the size of the organ, and also for its tortuous course.

It accompanies the lienal artery to the spleen, giving off, in its course, subsidiary plexi along the various branches of the artery.

In anatomy, the splenic vein (in the past called the lienal vein) is the blood vessel that drains blood from the spleen.

A considerable plexus accompanies the gastroduodenal artery and is continued as the inferior gastric plexus on the right gastroepiploic artery along the greater curvature of the stomach, where it unites with offshoots from the lienal plexus.

The superior mesenteric artery passes down in front of the left half across the uncinate process; the superior mesenteric vein runs upward on the right side of the artery and, behind the neck, joins with the lienal vein to form the portal vein.

The splenic lymph nodes (or pancreaticolienal) accompany the lienal (splenic) artery, and are situated in relation to the posterior surface and upper border of the pancreas; one or two members of this group are found in the gastrolienal ligament.

The short gastric veins, four or five in number, drain the fundus and left part of the greater curvature of the stomach, and pass between the two layers of the gastrolienal ligament to end in the lienal vein or in one of its large tributaries.

It commences on the right in the omental tuberosity, and is in relation with the celiac artery, from which the hepatic artery courses to the right just above the gland, while the lienal artery runs toward the left in a groove along this border.

The splenorenal ligament (or lienorenal ligament), is derived from the peritoneum, where the wall of the general peritoneal cavity comes into contact with the omental bursa between the left kidney and the spleen; the lienal vessels (splenic artery and vein) pass between its two layers.

The smaller veins unite to form larger ones; these do not accompany the arteries, but soon enter the trabecular sheaths of the capsule, and by their junction form six or more branches, which emerge from the hilum, and, uniting, constitute the lienal vein, the largest radicle of the portal vein.

It is covered, anteriorly, by the lesser omentum and stomach, behind which are the branches of the celiac artery and the celiac plexus; below these, by the lienal vein(splenic vein), the pancreas, the left renal vein, the inferior part of the duodenum, the mesentery, and aortic plexus.