Introduction:

Evidence indicates that the splenic artery presents a common pattern taking into account: origin, route and termination, however, sometimes anatomical variants of elementary importance for surgical specialties may appear.

Objective:

To describe the common pattern and the anatomical variants of the splenic arterial system in the adult man.

Methods:

A cross-sectional descriptive study with a universe made up of all the anatomical blocks existing in the department was carried out, whose noon-probabilistic sample at the authors discretion was made up of 25 anatomical blocks. The information was collected in a form containing the variables under study. The common pattern and the anatomical variants of the splenic artery were characterized considering the origin, route, collateral branches and terminal branches. The length and external diameter at the origin and termination of the splenic artery were determined. The anatomical pieces were acquired by agreement complying with the established ethical aspects. For the collection of information, a form containing the variables under study and the results processed in Excel using the statistical software SPSS 25.0 was prepared.

Results:

In most of the anatomical pieces, the common pattern of the splenic artery prevailed, corresponding to 88% and only variants of the norm were observed in 3 blocks, representing 12 %. The winding path predominated in 22 pieces, while in 2 pieces presented a serpentine path was observed and in 1 piece rectilinear one. The maximum length found of the splenic artery was 205 mm while the minimum length was 102 mm.

Conclusions

: The common pattern prevailed according to origin, route and termination of the splenic artery prevailed over the anatomical variants.

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