Precaval nodes

At a glance

English

Precaval nodes

Latin (TA2)

Nodi precavales

System

Lymphatic

Region

Trunk

Side

Single, on the midline

About the precaval nodes

The precaval nodes belong to the right lumbar group, the nodes that surround the inferior vena cava. They lie on the anterior surface of the vein between the level of the renal veins and the junction of the two common iliac veins. With the lateral caval nodes along the right border and the retrocaval nodes behind, they make up the chain that drains the right side of the posterior abdomen.

In front of them lie the third part of the duodenum and the root of the mesentery; above them, the head of the pancreas and the right renal vein. To their left, across the narrow gap filled by the intermediate lumbar nodes, is the abdominal aorta.

The nodes receive lymph from the right common iliac nodes and, directly, from the right kidney, the right suprarenal gland and the posterior abdominal wall. Lymph leaving them passes to the other right lumbar nodes and then into the right lumbar trunk, which ends in the cisterna chyli.

Their main importance is in staging cancers of the right kidney and of pelvic organs that have reached the iliac chains. They are sometimes enlarged in lymphoma, and they are removed in retroperitoneal lymph node dissection. Because they lie directly on the vena cava, they are dissected off the vein with care, keeping its thin wall and lumbar tributaries intact.

Course and drainage

Begins at

Efferent vessels of the right common iliac nodes, and direct vessels from the right kidney, right suprarenal gland and posterior abdominal wall.

Drains into

Efferent vessels join the other right lumbar nodes and the right lumbar trunk to the cisterna chyli.

Drains

Collects lymph from the right side of the posterior abdomen and, at second hand, from the pelvis and right lower limb. Relevant in staging right renal and pelvic cancers and in lymphoma.