Lumbar veins
veins that drain the posterior abdominal wall
The lumbar veins are four pairs of veins running along the inside of the posterior abdominal wall, and drain venous blood from parts of the abdominal wall. Each lumbar vein accompanies a single lumbar artery. The lower two pairs of lumbar veins all drain directly into the inferior vena cava, whereas the fate of the upper two pairs is more variable.
Lumbar veins are the lumbar equivalent of the posterior intercostal veins of the thorax.
Structure
A lumbar vein accompanies each of the four lumbar arteries on each side of the body.
Distribution and tributaries
Collectively, the lumbar veins drain blood from the territories supplied by the corresponding lumbar arteries (the posterior, lateral, and anterior abdominal wall).
The lumbar veins drain the anterior spinal veins.
Fate
The 3rd and 4th lumbar veins drain into the inferior vena cava.
The fate of the two superior lumbar veins is far more variable, and may drain into either the inferior vena cava, ascending lumbar vein, azygos vein, or (on the left side) the left renal vein; the 1st lumbar vein often passes inferiorly to join the 2nd lumbar vein, but may less commonly drain into the ascending lumbar vein, or the azygos vein; the 2nd lumbar vein may drain directly into the inferior vena cava (at or near the level of the renal veins), but may less commonly join the 3rd lumbar vein or drain into the ascending lumbar vein.
Anastomoses
The 1st and 2nd lumbar veins are often interconnected with each other.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Lumbar veins” is veins that drain the posterior abdominal wall. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Lumbar, veins and drain, not as a finished interpretation.
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This entry incorporates text from “Lumbar veins” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.