Rabbit hepatic arterial anatomy variations: implications on experimental design.

BackgroundThe VX2 rabbit model of liver cancer is commonly used to evaluate the efficacy of locoregional anticancer therapy and knowledge of the hepatic arterial anatomy in the rabbit is important for catheter-directed experiments.PurposeTo describe the normal anatomy and anatomic variations of the celiac axis and hepatic artery in the rabbit.Material and MethodsAngiograms of 222 rabbits were retrospectively reviewed. The branching pattern of the celiac axis was classified and the diameters of the major branches were measured. Paired t-tests were used to compare the difference between the average sizes of arteries.ResultsVariant celiac axis or hepatic artery anatomy was noted in 25.9% of angiograms, with the gastric branches arising from the proper hepatic artery in 23.3% of cases. The celiac axis could be successfully classified into one of five distinct branching patterns in 193 (86.9%) cases. The mean diameters of the right and left hepatic arteries were 0.67 mm (95% CI [0.64, 0.7]) and 1.25 mm (95% CI...