Coronary sinus at a glance
- What it is
- The coronary sinus is the main vein of the heart, draining most of the blood from the heart wall into the right atrium.
- Location
- It lies in the posterior atrioventricular groove and opens into the right atrium between the opening of the inferior vena cava and the tricuspid valve. It receives the great, middle and small cardiac veins, the posterior vein of the left ventricle and the oblique vein of the left atrium.
- Function
- It returns most of the venous blood of the heart muscle to the right atrium.
- Body system
- Cardiovascular · single, midline structure
- FMA ID
- FMA4706 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Its opening is guarded by a small valve (the Thebesian valve).
- It is about 2–5 cm long and lies on the posterior (diaphragmatic) surface of the heart.
Clinical relevance
It is used as a route for pacing leads in cardiac resynchronization therapy.
Structures next to the coronary sinus
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Posterior leaflet of mitral valve · cardiovascular
- Descending thoracic aorta · cardiovascular
- Anterior leaflet of mitral valve · cardiovascular
- External intercostal muscle · muscular
- Azygos vein · cardiovascular
- Cavity of atrium · cardiovascular
- Wall of atrium · cardiovascular
- Cavity of ventricle · cardiovascular
- Septal leaflet of tricuspid valve · cardiovascular
- Anterior intercostal veins · cardiovascular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Coronary sinus (FMA4706). 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.
Related anatomy
Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.