Splenic vein at a glance
- What it is
- A vein that drains the spleen and joins the superior mesenteric vein.
- Location
- It forms at the splenic hilum, runs behind the pancreas and joins the superior mesenteric vein behind the pancreatic neck to form the portal vein. It usually receives the inferior mesenteric vein, which may instead join the superior mesenteric vein or the junction.
- Function
- It drains the spleen, stomach and pancreas.
- Body system
- Cardiovascular · single, midline structure
- FMA ID
- FMA14331 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- It runs in a groove on the back of the pancreas and receives several short pancreatic veins.
Clinical relevance
Splenic vein thrombosis can cause gastric varices.
Structures next to the splenic vein
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Splenic artery · cardiovascular
- Inferior suprarenal artery · cardiovascular
- Middle suprarenal artery · cardiovascular
- Hepatovenous segment VII · digestive
- Hepatovenous segment VI · digestive
- Suprarenal vein · cardiovascular
- Common hepatic duct · digestive
- Inferior vena cava · cardiovascular
- Adrenal gland · endocrine
- Posterior superior pancreaticoduodenal artery · cardiovascular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Splenic vein (FMA14331). 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.