Internal iliac vein at a glance
- What it is
- The internal iliac vein drains the pelvis.
- Location
- It forms near the upper part of the greater sciatic foramen and joins the external iliac vein in front of the sacroiliac joint to form the common iliac vein. Its tributaries drain the pelvic organs, gluteal region and perineum.
- Function
- It drains the pelvic viscera, pelvic wall, gluteal region and perineum.
- Body system
- Cardiovascular · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA18888 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Its pelvic tributaries form venous plexuses around the bladder, prostate and rectum, linked to the vertebral venous plexus.
Structures next to the internal iliac vein
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Sacrum · skeletal
- Superior gluteal vein · cardiovascular
- Median sacral vein · cardiovascular
- Internal iliac artery · cardiovascular
- Obturator vein · cardiovascular
- Rectum · digestive
- Superior rectal artery · cardiovascular
- Superior rectal vein · cardiovascular
- Coccygeus · muscular
- Seminal vesicle · reproductive
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Internal iliac vein (FMA18888). 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.