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Sclera: anatomy, location and function

The sclera is the tough, white outer coat of the eyeball. It maintains the shape of the eye and provides attachment for the extraocular muscles.

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Structures

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Highlighted in the model: Sclera. 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.

Sclera at a glance

What it is
The sclera is the tough, white outer coat of the eyeball.
Location
It covers the posterior five-sixths of the eye and is continuous with the cornea at the front and the dural sheath of the optic nerve behind.
Function
It maintains the shape of the eye and provides attachment for the extraocular muscles.
Body system
Eye & ear · paired (left and right)
FMA ID
FMA58272 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)

Key facts

  • Made of dense collagen.
  • Pierced by the optic nerve at the lamina cribrosa.
  • The four rectus muscles insert on the sclera in front of the equator at increasing distances from the cornea (the spiral of Tillaux).

Clinical relevance

Scleritis is painful inflammation of the sclera.

Structures next to the sclera

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

References

  1. Foundational Model of Anatomy: Sclera (FMA58272). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
  2. OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §14.1 Sensory Perception. 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.