Renal vein
Citation, DOI, disclosures and article data
At the time the article was created Henry Knipe had no recorded disclosures.
View Henry Knipe's current disclosuresAt the time the article was last revised Craig Hacking had the following disclosures:
- Philips Australia, Paid speaker at Philips Spectral CT events (ongoing)
These were assessed during peer review and were determined to not be relevant to the changes that were made.
View Craig Hacking's current disclosures- Renal veins
- Renal vein anatomy
The renal veins are asymmetric paired retroperitoneal veins that drain the kidneys.
On this page:
Gross anatomy
Course
The renal vein is formed by the union of two-to-three renal parenchymal veins in the renal sinus. It emerges from the renal hilum anterior to the renal artery and drains into the inferior vena cava at the level of L2.
The left renal vein is much longer, at 6-7 cm, than the right renal vein, at 3-4 cm, but they have a similar caliber (~1.2 cm). The left renal vein courses anteriorly to the abdominal aorta.
Tributaries
Left renal vein
- left gonadal vein
- left inferior phrenic vein
- left adrenal vein
- small branches from kidney capsule, proximal ureter and renal pelvis
Right renal vein
- small branches from kidney capsule, proximal ureter and renal pelvis
Variant anatomy
See article: renal vein anomalies.
Related pathology
References
- 1. Geoffrey D. Rubin, Neil M. Rofsky. CT and MR Angiography. (2009) ISBN: 9780781745253 - Google Books
- 2. Michael Schünke, Erik Schulte, Udo Schumacher. Thieme Atlas of Anatomy. (2006) ISBN: 9783131420916 - Google Books
- 3. Mauro MA, Murphy KP, Thomson KR et-al. Image-Guided Interventions: Expert Radiology Series. Saunders. ISBN:B00E6GB08K. Read it at Google Books - Find it at Amazon
Incoming Links
- Adrenal gland
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- Superior mesenteric artery
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- Renal cell carcinoma
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- Circumaortic left renal vein
- Metastatic locally invasive renal cell carcinoma
- Truncal venous development (Gray's illustration)
- Retroaortic left renal vein
- Hepatic hydatid cyst and Nutcracker phenomenon
- Adrenal cortical carcinoma
- Left renal vein thrombosis
- Nutcracker phenomenon
- Left testicular varicocele - nutcracker phenomenon
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