Superior mesenteric artery

Looks like

A single thick artery leaving the aorta behind the pancreas and fanning into the gut.

What it does

Feeds the small intestine and the first half of the colon.

Keeping it well

Nothing routine; a clot here causes severe belly pain out of all proportion to the examination, and is an emergency.

Its parts

• Inferior pancreaticoduodenal artery
• Ileal artery
• Middle colic artery
• Right colic artery
• Ileocolic artery
• Trunk of superior mesenteric artery
• Anterior inferior pancreaticoduodenal artery
• Posterior inferior pancreaticoduodenal artery

Related conditions

• Acute mesenteric ischaemia (gut stroke)
• Aortic aneurysm
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol
• Hypothermia & frostbite
• Kawasaki disease
• Metabolic syndrome
• Orthostatic hypotension & POTS
• Peripheral artery disease
• Phaeochromocytoma & hyperaldosteronism
• Pre-eclampsia
• Raynaud's phenomenon
• Sepsis
• Shock (circulatory failure)
• Vasculitis (GCA & others)