There is a hepatic artery and a portal vein but not a portal artery. I had a portal vein resection as part of my Whipple surgery in 2012. Of the three surgeons on the team, two were highly experienced in not only doing the Whipple procedure but were liver transplantation and vascular surgeons as well.

When I was opened on the OR, what was imaged and thought to be close proximity of the tumor to the portal vein was in contact and surgical pathology showed it had penetrated the vascular wall. The portal vein resection took an additional 3 hours and three units of blood making the surgery 9.5 hours and in the OR under anesthesia 11 hours.