Hepatic artery proper

Looks like

The continuation of the common hepatic artery, running up in the free edge of the lesser omentum beside the bile duct and portal vein.

What it does

Carries oxygen-rich blood to the liver and gallbladder; splits into right and left hepatic arteries.

Keeping it well

Can be clamped briefly to stop liver bleeding (Pringle manoeuvre); injury in gallbladder surgery is serious.

Related conditions

• Acute liver failure
• Acute porphyria
• Alcohol withdrawal and delirium tremens
• Alcohol-related liver disease
• Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency
• Autoimmune hepatitis
• Bile duct cancer (cholangiocarcinoma)
• Biliary atresia
• Brucellosis
• Cirrhosis
• Dengue & mosquito-borne fevers
• Ebola virus disease
• Echinococcosis (hydatid disease)
• Eye melanoma (uveal melanoma)
• Gilbert's syndrome
• Haemochromatosis & Wilson's disease
• Hepatic encephalopathy
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol
• Hypothermia & frostbite
• Intestinal worms & schistosomiasis
• Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy
• Kawasaki disease
• Leishmaniasis
• Leptospirosis (Weil's disease)
• Liver abscess (pyogenic and amoebic)
• Liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma)
• Malaria
• Metabolic fatty liver disease (MASLD)
• Metabolic syndrome
• Myelofibrosis
• Newborn jaundice
• Orthostatic hypotension & POTS
• Peripheral artery disease
• Phaeochromocytoma & hyperaldosteronism
• Phenylketonuria (PKU)
• Poisoning & overdose
• Portal vein thrombosis and Budd–Chiari syndrome
• Pre-eclampsia
• Primary biliary cholangitis
• Primary sclerosing cholangitis
• Raynaud's phenomenon
• Sepsis
• Shock (circulatory failure)
• Vasculitis (GCA & others)
• Viral hepatitis (A, B, C, D, E)
• Yellow fever