Hepatic vein at a glance
- What it is
- The hepatic veins carry blood from the liver into the inferior vena cava.
- Location
- There are three main hepatic veins (right, middle and left) that run between liver segments and open into the inferior vena cava just below the diaphragm.
- Function
- They drain blood that has passed through the liver sinusoids.
- Body system
- Cardiovascular · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA14339 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- They have no valves. The middle and left hepatic veins usually join to form a short common trunk before entering the IVC.
- The right hepatic vein is usually the largest and drains mainly segments VI and VII with parts of V and VIII; the middle drains IV, V and VIII, and the left drains II and III.
Clinical relevance
Hepatic vein thrombosis causes Budd-Chiari syndrome.
Structures next to the hepatic vein
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Middle hepatic vein · cardiovascular
- Caudate lobe of liver · digestive
- Hepatovenous segment II · digestive
- Hepatovenous segment IV · digestive
- Portal vein · cardiovascular
- Hepatovenous segment III · digestive
- Posterior interventricular branch of coronary artery · cardiovascular
- Gastric vein · cardiovascular
- Gastric artery · cardiovascular
- Internal intercostal muscle · muscular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Hepatic vein (FMA14339). 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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