Pancreas

V-shaped exocrine and endocrine gland, with its body next to the pylorus, a right lobe in the mesoduodenum and a left lobe caudal to the stomach.

Laterality:: Unpaired

Draft, not yet reviewed by a veterinarian. Content may contain errors. It is published so the community can review it.

View piece alone in 3D

This piece is a schematic shape, not a scan: there is no freely licensed model for this structure yet.

3D model of this piece: Vet Atlas procedural organs, CC BY-SA 4.0

Topography

Body: in the angle between the pylorus and the cranial duodenal flexure.
Right lobe: in the mesoduodenum, along the descending duodenum, ventral to the right kidney.
Left lobe: in the deep leaf of the greater omentum, caudal to the greater curvature of the stomach, towards the spleen and the cranial pole of the left kidney.

Ducts

The pancreatic duct opens with the bile duct at the major duodenal papilla; the accessory pancreatic duct, usually the main one in the dog, opens at the minor duodenal papilla.

Clinical relevance

Acute pancreatitis: cranial abdominal pain ("prayer position"), vomiting; diagnosed with pancreas-specific lipase and ultrasound.
Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency: from acinar atrophy, common in German Shepherd Dogs; causes voluminous diarrhoea and weight loss.
Diabetes mellitus and insulinoma: disorders of the pancreatic islets.

3D model

Schematic shape (illustrative fidelity), placed from landmarks on the skeleton and the scanned organs. It shows topography, not fine morphology.