Medial circumflex femoral veins

At a glance

English

Medial circumflex femoral veins

Latin (TA2)

Venae circumflexae mediales

System

Vein

Region

Lower limb

Side

Paired, left and right

About the medial circumflex femoral veins

The medial circumflex femoral veins are venae comitantes: usually two slender channels flanking the artery of the same name and sharing its course. They belong to the deep venous system of the thigh and carry blood from the region around the hip and the upper part of the adductor and posterior compartments back towards the femoral vessels.

Followed from their tributaries towards their end, the veins start behind the femur, where small vessels gather from quadratus femoris, the upper hamstrings, the adductors and the posterior part of the hip joint capsule. They then wind forwards around the medial side of the femoral neck, passing between obturator externus and adductor brevis and then in the gap between pectineus and iliopsoas, to reach the femoral triangle.

In the triangle they usually empty into the deep femoral (profunda femoris) vein, though one or both may join the femoral vein directly. Along their path they connect freely with the lateral circumflex femoral, obturator and inferior gluteal veins and with the first perforating vein, forming part of a venous network around the upper femur that matches the cruciate arterial anastomosis behind the bone.

These veins are rarely a target in themselves, but they matter for understanding the hip. The artery they accompany gives the retinacular vessels that supply most of the femoral head, and fractures of the femoral neck tear these vessels together with their veins, which is why such injuries risk avascular necrosis of the head. Surgeons working through medial or posterior approaches to the hip, or on the deep femoral vessels, meet these veins and must control them to avoid troublesome bleeding.

Course and drainage

Begins at

Begin behind the upper femur from tributaries draining quadratus femoris, the adductors, the upper hamstrings and the back of the hip joint.

Drains into

End in the femoral triangle, usually in the deep femoral vein and sometimes in the femoral vein itself.

Drains

Drain the medial and posterior region of the upper thigh, the adductor muscles and part of the hip joint and femoral neck.