Ascending lumbar vein at a glance
- What it is
- The ascending lumbar vein is a longitudinal vein along the lumbar spine that links the lumbar veins with the azygos system.
- Location
- It lies lateral to the lumbar vertebral bodies, links the common iliac, iliolumbar and lumbar veins, and continues upward through the diaphragm as the azygos vein on the right and the hemiazygos vein on the left.
- Function
- It drains the lumbar body wall and provides a collateral pathway between the inferior and superior venae cavae.
- Body system
- Cardiovascular · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA4950 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- It is an important route for venous blood if the inferior vena cava is blocked.
- It runs behind psoas major, in front of the lumbar transverse processes.
Structures next to the ascending lumbar vein
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Intervertebral disk of second lumbar vertebra · skeletal
- Inferior mesenteric vein · cardiovascular
- Lumbar artery · cardiovascular
- Posterior inferior pancreaticoduodenal artery · cardiovascular
- Lumbar vein · cardiovascular
- Superior mesenteric vein · cardiovascular
- Renal vein · cardiovascular
- Second lumbar vertebra · skeletal
- Marginal artery of colon · cardiovascular
- Superior mesenteric artery · cardiovascular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Ascending lumbar vein (FMA4950). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
- OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §20.1 Structure and Function of Blood Vessels. Rice University, 2022.
- Mitsuhashi N. et al. (2009). BodyParts3D: 3D structure database for anatomical concepts. Nucleic Acids Research 37, D782–D785. Data © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0.
Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.