## 4 Discussion  
Regarding the study of the variations in the splenic artery, there can be a wide range of possibilities. In relation to what was reported by the reviewed investigations, the splenic artery may present variation in its origin [3; 5; 6; 14; 16; 19; 20; 22; 23; 24; 25; 29; 31; 33; 62], in its course [3; 6; 15; 16; 17; 18; 32], or in its entrance to the splenic hilum [3; 6], and could also present \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Heterogeneity Statistics**} \\ \hline
**Tau** & **Tau\({}^{2}\)** & **I\({}^{2}\)** & **H\({}^{2}\)** & **R\({}^{2}\)** & **df** & **Q** & \(p\) \\ \hline
0.225 & 0.0508 (SE = 0.0377) & 99.48\% & 192.813 & 14.000 & 2699.384 & \textless{}0.01 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 6: Splenic artery prevalence data heterogeneity of the included studies. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Random-Effects Model (k = 15)**} \\ \hline
**Estimate** & **se** & **Z** & \(p\) & **CI Lower** & **CI Upper** \\  & **Bound** & **Bound** \\ \hline Intercept & 0.288 & 0.0598 & 4.82 & \textless{}0.01 & 0.171 & 0.405 \\ \hline Note. Tau\({}^{2}\) estimator: DerSimonian–Laird. & & & & & \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 5: Splenic artery prevalence data of the included studies. one or more variations [3; 6; 21; 26; 37]. This suggests that there could be multiple factors that can influence the development of anatomical variation, including geographic region, gender, and age. As the geographical distribution was relatively homogeneous, with a slight inclination towards the European continent (Table 3), we do not believe it is possible to determine that this criterion has an influence on the higher incidence of anatomical variations in the splenic artery. However, we believe that it may be associated with article search bias or a higher number of studies of the splenic artery that have been carried out in this continent. Regarding gender, the studies included in this review showed that 68.8% of patients were men, while 31.2% were women. These percentages were taken from sixteen case studies [5; 6; 13; 15; 17; 19; 22; 23; 24; 28; 29; 30; 31] in which gender was reported. We believe that it is not representative to attribute the variation to this aspect. Only three [6; 28; 32] studies included men and women, where the results presented means of 67% men and 32.3% women. If we consider these data, we can say that two-thirds were men and one-third were women, which could be an indication that these variations have a greater incidence in male subjects; however, we believe, that to better support this theory, more studies should be carried out that measure this relationship. Regarding age, most of the studies did not report age since they were mostly cadaveric studies and these tend not to mention age. In relation to the above, we believe that age is not a factor that influences directly the variation of the splenic artery, considering that its variation comes from embryonic development [65], but this could be analyzed in relation to the appearance of some associated comorbidities in different age cycles. In relation to the variation in the splenic artery's origin, we found that it has an incidence between 1.1 and 40%. Within these variations, its origin in the abdominal aorta artery [5; 19; 31] was most frequently mentioned, specifically under the celiac trunk and with an inclination to the left. Another reported origin was the hepatomesenteric trunk [19; 63], from which the superior mesenteric artery, the common hepatic artery, and the splenic artery arose directly. Finally, this artery can also originate in the gastrosplenic trunk [14; 19; 29], which has been described as inferior to the celiac trunk, and the splenic artery will have its origin in the left part of the gastrosplenic trunk.