Common iliac vein at a glance
- What it is
- The common iliac veins are formed by the external and internal iliac veins and unite to form the inferior vena cava.
- Location
- Each begins in front of the sacroiliac joint and ascends to the right of the body of L5, where the two veins join to form the inferior vena cava. The left vein is longer and passes behind the right common iliac artery.
- Function
- They drain the pelvis and the lower limbs.
- Body system
- Cardiovascular · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA21388 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- The right common iliac artery crosses in front of the beginning of the inferior vena cava, where the two common iliac veins meet.
Clinical relevance
Compression of the left vein by the right common iliac artery (May-Thurner syndrome) can lead to left leg deep vein thrombosis.
Structures next to the common iliac vein
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Common iliac artery · cardiovascular
- Taenia libera · digestive
- Intervertebral disk of fourth lumbar vertebra · skeletal
- Taenia omentalis · digestive
- Inferior mesenteric artery · cardiovascular
- Taenia mesocolica · digestive
- Transverse mesocolon · digestive
- Intervertebral disk of fifth lumbar vertebra · skeletal
- Intervertebral disk of third lumbar vertebra · skeletal
- Sigmoid vein · cardiovascular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Common iliac vein (FMA21388). 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.
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