Skip to content
EasyAnatomyLab
Menu

Radial vein: anatomy, location and function

Paired deep veins accompanying the radial artery. They drain the lateral forearm and hand.

Loading 3D model…
Skin0%
Muscles100%

Structures

Loading… Click the model or search.

Highlighted in the model: Radial 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.

Radial vein at a glance

What it is
Paired deep veins accompanying the radial artery.
Location
They arise from the deep palmar venous arch, ascend along the radial artery and join the ulnar veins to form the brachial veins.
Function
They drain the lateral forearm and hand.
Body system
Cardiovascular · paired (left and right)
FMA ID
FMA22949 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)

Key facts

  • Like most deep veins of the limbs, the radial veins are paired venae comitantes that wrap around their artery.

Structures next to the radial vein

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

References

  1. Foundational Model of Anatomy: Radial vein (FMA22949). 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.

Related anatomy

Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.