Femoral vein
Vena femoralis
The main deep vein of the thigh, running from the adductor hiatus up to the inguinal ligament beside the femoral artery.
At a glance
- English
- Femoral vein
- Latin (TA2)
- Vena femoralis
- System
- Vein
- Region
- Lower limb
- Side
- Paired, left and right
About the femoral vein
The femoral vein carries blood from almost the whole lower limb. It continues upwards from the popliteal vein at the adductor hiatus, the gap in adductor magnus above the back of the knee, and runs up the thigh through the adductor canal under sartorius, then through the femoral triangle. It ends behind the inguinal ligament, beyond which it is named the external iliac vein.
Throughout, it stays close to the femoral artery. Low in the thigh it lies behind and lateral to the artery, it comes to lie behind it towards the apex of the femoral triangle, and at the base of the triangle it is on its medial side. In the groin both vessels are enclosed in the femoral sheath, with the vein in the middle compartment between the artery and the femoral canal. It has a variable number of valves, mostly with two cusps, and the number often differs between the two legs.
Its largest tributaries are the deep femoral vein, which enters a few centimetres below the inguinal ligament, and the great saphenous vein, which passes through the saphenous opening to join it just below the ligament. The stretch above the deep femoral junction is called the common femoral vein. The stretch below, from the adductor hiatus to that junction, has been called the superficial femoral vein, but because the vessel is a deep vein that name can mislead, and the term subsartorial vein, or simply femoral vein, is preferred.
Clot in the femoral vein is deep vein thrombosis and needs anticoagulation; the misleading old name has led to patients being undertreated. Thrombosis in the common femoral segment carries a higher risk of pulmonary embolism. The vein is also a route for central venous catheters, found just medial to the femoral pulse, although lines here carry a notable risk of infection.
Course and drainage
- Begins at
- Continues from the popliteal vein at the adductor hiatus.
- Drains into
- Becomes the external iliac vein behind the inguinal ligament.
- Drains
- Drains almost the whole lower limb, with the great saphenous and deep femoral veins as its main tributaries.
Anthromica
See the femoral vein where it really sits, with every layer of the body around it.
- Every layer, one body. Peel from muscle to bone, nerve, vessel and organ, and turn it any way.
- English and Latin. Every structure named the way your exam names it.
- Quiz until it sticks. Short drills on the structures you keep missing.
Free to start. No card.
