Iliacus branch of iliolumbar artery
Ramus iliacus arteriae iliolumbalis
The lower terminal branch of the iliolumbar artery, running into the iliac fossa to feed the iliacus muscle and the ilium.
At a glance
- English
- Iliacus branch of iliolumbar artery
- Latin (TA2)
- Ramus iliacus arteriae iliolumbalis
- System
- Artery
- Region
- Trunk
- Side
- Paired, left and right
About the iliacus branch of iliolumbar artery
The iliacus branch is one of the two branches into which the iliolumbar artery divides once it has climbed out of the pelvis behind psoas major. The iliolumbar artery itself is normally the first branch of the posterior trunk of the internal iliac artery. While its partner, the lumbar branch, turns upwards to the lumbar region, the iliacus branch heads laterally and downwards into the iliac fossa on the inner face of the ilium.
Here it supplies the iliacus muscle, the flat muscle filling the fossa that joins psoas major to form iliopsoas. Some of its twigs run deep to the muscle, against the bone, and link up with iliac twigs from the obturator artery. A single one of them passes into a nutrient canal and carries blood into the ilium itself, which makes the branch one of the main nutrient vessels of the bone.
Other offshoots run laterally along the inner lip of the iliac crest. As they go they give twigs to the gluteal muscles and to the muscles of the abdominal wall that attach to the crest. Along the crest they join the superior gluteal, deep circumflex iliac and lateral circumflex femoral arteries, so that an arterial network forms in the region of the anterior superior iliac spine.
These connections tie the internal iliac system to branches of the external iliac and femoral arteries. That matters when one of the main pelvic vessels is narrowed or tied, because blood can still reach the hip region and pelvic wall by these routes. The branch also lies in the field of surgery on the iliac fossa and of bone graft harvest from the inner table of the ilium.
Course and supply
- Arises from
- One of the two terminal branches of the iliolumbar artery, arising behind the medial border of psoas major.
- Ends in
- Ends in muscular twigs to iliacus, a nutrient artery to the ilium and branches along the iliac crest that join neighbouring arteries near the anterior superior iliac spine.
- Supplies
- Supplies the iliacus muscle and the ilium, with twigs to the gluteal and lateral abdominal wall muscles along the iliac crest.
Anthromica
See the iliacus branch of iliolumbar artery 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.
