Lateral rectus at a glance
- What it is
- An extraocular muscle on the lateral wall of the orbit.
- Location
- Origin: common tendinous ring. Insertion: lateral sclera.
- Function
- Abducts the eyeball (turns it outward).
- Body system
- Muscular · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA49055 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Innervation: abducens nerve (CN VI)
- Blood supply: lacrimal and muscular branches of the ophthalmic artery
- Its origin bridges the superior orbital fissure, and the abducens nerve enters its medial surface.
Clinical relevance
Abducens nerve palsy causes inability to abduct the eye and horizontal double vision. Because CN VI has a long course over the petrous apex, it can be stretched by raised intracranial pressure, a 'false localising' sign.
Structures next to the lateral rectus
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Levator palpebrae superioris · muscular
- Long ciliary nerve · nervous
- Inferior branch of oculomotor nerve · nervous
- Inferior rectus · muscular
- Ciliary ganglion · nervous
- Lacrimal nerve · nervous
- Superior rectus · muscular
- Superior oblique · muscular
- Optic part of retina · eye & ear
- Vitreous body · eye & ear
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Lateral rectus (FMA49055). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
- OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §11.2 Naming Skeletal Muscles. 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.