Anatomie und Physiologie: Aktuelle Forschung
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Anatomy of the Anterior Vagus Nerve: An Anatomic Description and its Application in Surgery

Leopoldo M. Baccaro, Cristian N. Lucas, Marcos R. Zandomeni, María V. Selvino and Eduardo F. Albanese

Objective: Anatomic study of human corpses in order to obtain specific measurements of the anterior vagus nerve for its application in the surgical field. Methods: After analyzing the literature, dissections were performed on 15 human corpses, provided by the Universidad del Salvador. Descriptions were made of our observations. Results: The most frequently found structure in esophageal hiatus was a plexus. The cardial branch was present in 100% of the dissections. There were a constant number of gastric branches, between five and seven. The hepatic branch originated from the plexus in the majority of the cadavers. The distance between first and last branch points was variable. No relationship between the hepatic branch and left hepatic artery was observed. Conclusions: The structure most commonly found in the esophageal hiatus was the terminal plexus of the anterior vagus nerve. The hepatic branch most frequently originated directly from this plexus, although in a considerable number of cases its origin was found either proximal or distal to this structure. We could not confirm the literature stating the relationship between the hepatic branch and the left hepatic artery through our studies. The number of gastric branches was constant. The distance between the first and last gastric branch was extremely variable, which can be explained by the anthropometric differences between the cadavers. No relationship was found between the number of gastric branches and the length of the main gastric branch.