Branching
The IMA branches off the anterior surface of the abdominal aorta below the renal artery branch points, and approximately midway between these and the aortic bifurcation (into the common iliac arteries), L3 vertebral level.
The IMA has the following branches:
| Branch | notes |
| left colic artery | supplies descending colon |
| sigmoid branches | the most superior being described as 'the superior sigmoid artery' |
| superior rectal artery | effectively the terminal branch of the IMA (the continuation of the IMA after all other branches) |
All these arterial branches further divide into arcades which then supply the colon at regular intervals.
Read more about this topic: Inferior Mesenteric Artery
Famous quotes containing the word branching:
“The moose will, perhaps, one day become extinct; but how naturally then, when it exists only as a fossil relic, and unseen as that, may the poet or sculptor invent a fabulous animal with similar branching and leafy horns ... to be the inhabitant of such a forest as this!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)