[scientizscht (OP)]

Hello!

Is the blood supply to an organ done exclusively by one (or more) distinct arteries or there is extensive collateral supply from different arteries?

For example, is lungs' circulation only from bronchial and pulmonary arteries/veins or there is collateral blood circulation as well from other arteries?

Any examples?

Let's say you want to completely block blood supply to prostate.
If you block completely the prostate artery, do you achieve that? Or blood from different arteries will supply the organ?

Or the same with a specific bone or with lungs or with bowel.

In other words, do we know which arteries supply which organ/area and are these specific arteries or there is never one or more distinct arteries who supply one organ or region?

I don't mean small vessels that may be inactive normally and activate under stress, because these branches come from the same arteries that supply the organ. I am talking about different arteries from the arteries that are supposed to supply the organ.

Also, I am not talking about the variations in vasculature. I know that not all vasculature is the same to every person, but would we still have one or more specific arteries supplying a specific organ or region?

Thanks!

[chris]

The answer is "yes, and no".

Some organs have a dedicated, exclusive arterial supply. The kidney, for example, has a single renal artery that delivers the sole source of blood to that organ.

The brain, on the other hand, has a dual arterial supply: the carotid arteries on each side supply the front parts of the brain, mostly; the vertebral arteries supply the rear parts of the brain. The supply from the whole ensemble merges at the Circle of Willis at the base of the brain so that the haemodynamic equivalent of "load balancing" can divert some of the blood from each of the two supplies to the vascular territories of the others.

Other organs have a different arrangement again. The liver receives blood from two independent sources: the hepatic arteries, which come off the aorta, and the portal veins, which drain the products of digestion and the abdominal organs and viscera. Similar to this is the example of the lung, which you have already raised, which receives oxygenated arterial blood via bronchial arteries and the deoxygenated pulmonary arterial supply from the right side of the heart.