Renal vein at a glance
- What it is
- A large vein draining the kidney into the inferior vena cava.
- Location
- It leaves the renal hilum in front of the renal artery and empties into the inferior vena cava; the left vein is longer and crosses in front of the aorta.
- Function
- It drains blood from the kidney.
- Body system
- Cardiovascular · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA14336 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- The left renal vein also receives the left gonadal and suprarenal veins.
- The left renal vein is about three times longer than the right, which is why the left kidney is usually chosen for living donation.
Clinical relevance
The left renal vein can be compressed between the aorta and superior mesenteric artery (nutcracker syndrome).
Structures next to the renal vein
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Posterior division of renal artery · cardiovascular
- Renal artery · cardiovascular
- Anterior division of renal artery · cardiovascular
- Abdominal aorta · cardiovascular
- Posterior superior pancreaticoduodenal artery · cardiovascular
- Pancreas · digestive
- Posterior inferior pancreaticoduodenal artery · cardiovascular
- Intervertebral disk of first lumbar vertebra · skeletal
- Pancreatic duct · digestive
- Duodenum · digestive
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Renal vein (FMA14336). 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.