The dorsal pancreatic artery in pancreas procurement and transplantation: anatomical considerations and potential implications

Aim: Organ procurement errors account for almost 20% of discarded pancreatic allografts. For this reason, the anatomical significance of the dorsal pancreatic artery (DPA) was reviewed.

Methods: A strategy on dealing with an often overlooked DPA is evaluated.

Results: The DPA provides together with the splenic artery the main blood supply to the pancreatic tail. Three different arterial variations have been described. In the rare instances when the DPA arises from the common hepatic artery or the celiac trunk, instead of the splenic origin, the DPA can easily be overlooked by surgeons not familiar with this artery. This may result in an unintentional damage to the pancreatic tail blood supply. If unrecognized during the back-table inspection, it could potentially jeopardize the pancreatic graft after reperfusion. When a cut DPA is encountered during inspection, efforts should be attempted to revascularize the graft, especially if there is no backflow from the splenic artery as sign of absent collateral circulation.

Conclusion: The DPA may play a more prominent role in the vascularization of pancreas transplants than currently assumed. Better understanding of the vascular anatomy may lead to improved results in pancreas transplantation.