Anatomy of Stomach


The principal role of the stomach is to store and prepare ingested food for digestion and absorption through a variety of motor and secretory functions. The stomach can be divided into five regions based on external landmarks: the cardia, the region just distal to the gastroesophageal (GE) junction; the fundus, the portion of the stomach above and to the left of the GE junction; the body, or

corpus, the largest portion of the stomach; the antrum, the distal 25% to 30% of the stomach, located between the incisa angularis and the pylorus; and the pylorus, a thickened ring of smooth muscle forming the distal boundary of the stomach. The arterial blood supply to the lesser curvature of the stomach is from the left gastric artery, a branch of the celiac axis, and the right gastric artery, a branch of the common hepatic artery. The greater curvature is supplied by the short gastric and left gastroepiploic arteries, branches of the splenic artery, and the right gastroepiploic artery, a branch of the gastroduodenal artery. Venous drainage of the stomach parallels arterial supply, with the left gastric (coronary) and right gastric veins draining into the portal vein, the left gastroepiploic vein draining into the splenic vein, and the right gastroepiploic draining into the superior mesenteric vein. The principal innervation to the stomach is derived from the right and left vagal trunks