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Anatomic Variants

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Encyclopedia of Pathology

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Pathology ((EP))

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Introduction

Anatomical variations of the pancreas, the pancreatic duct system, and the surrounding vasculature are not uncommon and of importance as disease causing alterations and during surgery. Variations of the anatomy of the pancreas and surrounding organs as well as of the vasculature are of utmost importance to pancreatic surgeons for proper therapy and to avoid injury and potentially life-threatening organ ischemia. The embryologic development of the pancreas explains how some of these variations occur and guides how to manage them from a clinical perspective.

Embryological Basis

In the embryological period, the pancreas originates from the endodermal lining of the primitive foregut and consists of two separate parts, which are called dorsal and ventral buds. The dorsal pancreatic bud forms the anterior part of the head, body, and tail. The ventral bud forms the posterior part of the head along with the uncinate process (Fig. 1). In the sixth and seventh week of gestation,...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Visceral, Vascular and Endocrine Surgery, University Hospital Halle (Saale), Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany

    Onur Bayram & Jörg Kleeff

Authors
  1. Onur Bayram
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  2. Jörg Kleeff
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Correspondence to Jörg Kleeff .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. NIJMEGEN, The Netherlands

    J.H.J.M. van Krieken

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Bayram, O., Kleeff, J. (2021). Anatomic Variants. In: van Krieken, J. (eds) Encyclopedia of Pathology. Encyclopedia of Pathology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28845-1_5494-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28845-1_5494-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28845-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28845-1

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