Superior rectal artery at a glance
- What it is
- The continuation of the inferior mesenteric artery to the rectum.
- Location
- It descends in the sigmoid mesocolon, divides into right and left branches and supplies the upper rectum; it anastomoses with the middle rectal artery.
- Function
- It supplies the upper part of the rectum.
- Body system
- Cardiovascular · single, midline structure
- FMA ID
- FMA14832 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- It supplies the rectal mucosa down to the pectinate line of the anal canal.
Structures next to the superior rectal artery
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Superior rectal vein · cardiovascular
- Median sacral vein · cardiovascular
- Internal iliac artery · cardiovascular
- Intervertebral disk of fifth lumbar vertebra · skeletal
- Superior gluteal vein · cardiovascular
- Sacrum · skeletal
- Internal iliac vein · cardiovascular
- External iliac vein · cardiovascular
- Obturator vein · cardiovascular
- Fifth lumbar vertebra · skeletal
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Superior rectal artery (FMA14832). 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.
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