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Lumbar vein: anatomy, location and function

Segmental veins of the posterior abdominal wall that run with the lumbar arteries. They drain blood from the lumbar region and posterior abdominal wall.

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Highlighted in the model: Lumbar vein. Click any part to read about it, or switch off “Highlight topic” to see the whole body. 3D data: BodyParts3D, © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0; meshes simplified and recoloured. The model is an adult male.

Lumbar vein at a glance

What it is
Segmental veins of the posterior abdominal wall that run with the lumbar arteries.
Location
Usually four pairs run with the lumbar arteries and are linked by the ascending lumbar veins. The third and fourth drain into the inferior vena cava; the first and second are variable and often drain into the ascending lumbar vein. The left veins pass behind the aorta.
Function
They drain blood from the lumbar region and posterior abdominal wall.
Body system
Cardiovascular · single, midline structure
FMA ID
FMA15370 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)

Key facts

  • The ascending lumbar veins connect to the azygos and hemiazygos systems.

Clinical relevance

Lumbar veins provide an alternate route for blood to return to the heart if the inferior vena cava is blocked.

Structures next to the lumbar vein

The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:

References

  1. Foundational Model of Anatomy: Lumbar vein (FMA15370). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
  2. OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §20.1 Structure and Function of Blood Vessels. Rice University, 2022.
  3. 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.