WordNet
n. an artery that originates from the abdominal aorta just below the diaphragm and branches into the left gastric artery and the common hepatic artery and the splenic artery [syn: celiac artery, truncus celiacus, arteria celiaca]
Usage examples of "celiac trunk".
The map had routed him out of this pressed tunnel through the inferior vena cava to the right atrium and thence through the right ventricle, the pulmonary arteries, through the valves, to the lungs, the pulmonary veins, crossover to the left side of the heart (left atrium, left ventricle), the aorta--bypassing the three coronary arteries above the aortic valves--and down over the arch of the aorta--bypassing the carotid and other arteries--to the celiac trunk, where the arteries split in a confusing array: the gastroduodenal to the stomach, the hepatic to the liver, the splenic to the spleen.