Inferior gluteal nodes

At a glance

English

Inferior gluteal nodes

Latin (TA2)

Nodi glutei inferiores

System

Lymphatic

Region

Trunk

Side

Paired, left and right

About the inferior gluteal nodes

The inferior gluteal nodes belong to the parietal group of internal iliac nodes, the nodes that sit on the walls of the pelvis rather than beside its organs. They are few and small, and they cluster around the inferior gluteal artery near its origin from the anterior trunk of the internal iliac artery and where it passes out of the pelvis through the greater sciatic foramen, under the lower border of piriformis.

Their position puts them in the posterolateral part of the lesser pelvis, close to the sacral plexus and the sciatic nerve, which leave by the same gap beneath piriformis. Their neighbours are the superior gluteal nodes higher up on the pelvic wall, the lateral sacral nodes against the front of the sacrum, and the main internal iliac nodes along the parent artery.

Lymph reaches them from the deep tissues of the buttock and the upper back of the thigh, travelling inwards alongside the inferior gluteal vessels, together with some lymph from the lower pelvic wall and the viscera lying against it. After filtering, the lymph passes up to the internal iliac nodes and then to the common iliac nodes on its way to the lumbar chain.

These nodes are deep and cannot be felt from the surface. They become relevant when imaging the pelvis for spread of a pelvic tumour or for infection tracking from the deep gluteal region, and they lie in the field of an extended pelvic lymph node dissection. Because the sciatic nerve and sacral plexus lie so close, enlarged nodes here may in rare cases irritate those nerves and give pain in the back of the leg.

Course and drainage

Begins at

Afferent vessels running with the inferior gluteal vessels from the deep structures of the buttock and upper posterior thigh, with a share from the lower pelvic wall.

Drains into

Efferent vessels pass to the internal iliac nodes, and from them to the common iliac nodes.

Drains

Filters lymph from the deep gluteal region and adjacent pelvic wall. Enlargement may reflect deep buttock infection or spread of a pelvic cancer, and the nodes are inspected or removed in extended pelvic lymph node surgery.