Inferior mesenteric artery at a glance
- What it is
- The inferior mesenteric artery supplies the hindgut.
- Location
- It arises from the abdominal aorta at about L3 and descends to the left. Its branches are the left colic artery, the sigmoid arteries and the superior rectal artery.
- Function
- It supplies the left (distal) third of the transverse colon, the descending colon, the sigmoid colon and the upper rectum.
- Body system
- Cardiovascular · single, midline structure
- FMA ID
- FMA14750 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- It is the smallest of the three unpaired visceral branches of the aorta.
- Its superior rectal continuation anastomoses with the middle and inferior rectal arteries from the internal iliac system.
Clinical relevance
It is often covered by an abdominal aortic aneurysm and may be sacrificed during repair, with the colon then relying on the marginal artery.
Structures next to the inferior mesenteric artery
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Taenia omentalis · digestive
- Taenia libera · digestive
- Common iliac artery · cardiovascular
- Taenia mesocolica · digestive
- Transverse mesocolon · digestive
- Mesentery of small intestine · digestive
- Common iliac vein · cardiovascular
- Ileocolic artery · cardiovascular
- Ileal artery · cardiovascular
- Ileal vein · cardiovascular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Inferior mesenteric artery (FMA14750). 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.