 Hi there, my name is Reuben and today we're going to have a look at the abdominal aorta. I'm going to quiz you as we move through so that you can learn it yourself. Here we have it. Let's divide it up into sections according to which vertebra each portion overlies. Right at the top what do we have branching off? The first arteries are paired and they supply the muscle that the aorta has just popped through. That would be the diaphragm. So this is the inferior phrenic artery. Next at T12, the artery that supplies all the organs at the top of the abdomen. It comes from the ancient Greek word for belly. It is the ciliac trunk. What three main arteries does this end off? One that follows a coiled path over the pancreas, the splenic artery. One which goes straight to the stomach, the left gastric artery, and one which runs to the liver, the common hepatic artery. Off the splenic artery we have two main arteries that supply the stomach. The short gastric and left gastroepiploic arteries. Off the left gastric artery we have branches to a structure that runs parallel to the aorta then runs into the stomach. These are esophageal branches. From the common hepatic we have three branches. One, the proper hepatic, two, the gastro-duodenal, and three, the right gastric. From the gastro-duodenal we have the right gastroepiploic and superior pancreatico-duodenal. The main branches of the abdominal aorta run down in the order CSI. C for ciliac, S for superior mesenteric artery at the level of L1. First of all it gives off arteries for the second section of the small intestine. These have few arcades and long vasorecta. They are the gyginal arteries. Next with many arcades and short vasorecta we have the ileal arteries. We then have one branch that goes up and finishes the work of the common hepatic. This is the inferior pancreatico-duodenal. Next the first two parts of the large intestine are supplied. We have the middle colic and right colic arteries. The superior mesenteric artery is a loop and the loop is completed by the arteries supplying the stuff in the lower right corner of the abdomen. This is the ileocolic artery. Next up L2. From L2 we have two major arteries branching straight from the aorta. First up the renal arteries which has the inferior super renal coming off it. The superior infra renal comes off the inferior phrenic just so you know. Next we have the arteries to supply our testes and ovaries the gonadal arteries. Okay L3. This must be where our last criminal hops off remember CSI. This is the inferior mesenteric. It supplies everything in the lower abdomen that the superior mesenteric didn't. We've covered the right and middle colon so here we have first the left colic artery. So what comes after the descending colon which is the left side of the large intestine. The sigmoid colon thus the sigmoid branches we've got here. Last but certainly not least we have the end of the abdominal GIT covered. This is the superior rectal artery. At L4 I've included an artery that we see in four different pairs along the abdominal aorta. They run back on the bodies of the vertebrae behind that vessel. These are the lumbar arteries they are paired arteries. The last thing we see here is at L4 the bifurcation of the aorta splitting into to become the common iliac arteries. So how did you go? Have another crack and before you know it it will be as easy as ABC or CSI. Alright thanks very much hope you enjoyed that. See you next time.