The hepatic lymph nodes consist of the following groups: The lymph nodes of the hepatic chain receive afferents from the stomach, duodenum, liver, gall-bladder, and pancreas; their efferents join the celiac group of preaortic lymph nodes.

Cancer prognosis and treatment

Hepatic artery lymph nodes are commonly resected during a Whipple procedure. In a Whipple procedure, outcomes favored those who had no hepatic artery lymph node involvement. A particularly large hepatic artery lymph node, positioned on the anterior aspect of the common hepatic artery, is thought to play an important role in pancreatic cancer. When metastatic disease is identified in the hepatic artery lymph node during pancreatic cancer surgery, longterm outcomes are worse.