[A Case of Laparoscopic Distal Gastrectomy for Gastric Cancer with Common Hepatic Artery Anomaly].

A 67-year-old woman with upper abdominal pain was referred to our hospital. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy revealed a type 3 gastric cancer at the greater curvature of the angular notch. Abdominal CT helped detect the primary tumor. Multi-detector-row computed tomography(MDCT)and 3D-CT angiography revealed a vascular anomaly in which the left gastric and splenic arteries formed the common trunk. The common hepatic and superior mesenteric arteries formed the common trunk. We performed a laparoscopic distal gastrectomy with D2 lymph node dissection. During suprapancreatic lymph node dissection, the surface of the portal vein was difficult to expose toward the left side because the portal vein joined the splenic and superior mesenteric veins on the caudal side. Therefore, the No. 8a lymph nodes were dissected along the anterior hepatic plexus. In cases of common hepatic artery anomaly, identifying the anterior hepatic plexus is useful for the dissection of the suprapancreatic lymph nodes.