The incidence and significance of the posterior gastric artery in human anatomy.

This study examines the incidence of the posterior gastric artery in a series of 75 adult cadavers. We clearly identified the posterior gastric artery in 36 (48%) cadavers as a 1- to 2-mm vessel arising from the cranial border of the splenic artery within 3 cm of the celiac trunk and coursing dorsally to the posterior parietal peritoneum where it forms a fold before supplying the upper part of the posterior gastric wall. Identifying this vessel is difficult during surgery that compromises vascular tributaries of the stomach, and the obscure course and high incidence of this vessel necessitates awareness that, in a 75-85% gastrectomy, the short gastric artery or branches of the left gastric artery should be preserved since the posterior gastric artery will be sacrificed in 13% of these cases.