A left testicular artery arising from a middle mesenteric artery.

摘要

The middle mesenteric artery is rare variation that was first detected by Benton and Cotter (1963) and then named by Lawdahl and Keller (1987). In all previously reported cases, it arose from the aorta between the superior and inferior mesenteric arteries, mainly supplied the transverse colon and gave branches to the superior portion of the descending colon (Benton and Cotter, 1963; Lawdahl and Keller, 1987; Pillet et al., 1993; Dirrigl et al., 2009). On the other hand, the gonadal artery usually arises from the anterior surface of the aorta below the renal vein (Merklin and Michels, 1958). In about 15% of cases, the gonadal arteries arise from the renal arteries (Merklin and Michels, 1958). More rarely, the gonadal arteries can originate from the suprarenal, inferior phrenic, superior mesenteric, lumbar, common iliac, or internal iliac arteries (Merklin and Michels, 1958). We report here an extremely rare case in which a left testicular artery originated from a middle mesenteric artery in an embalmed cadaver.