Right renal vein
Vena renalis dextra
The short vein draining the right kidney, passing straight from the renal hilum into the side of the inferior vena cava.
At a glance
- English
- Right renal vein
- Latin (TA2)
- Vena renalis dextra
- System
- Vein
- Region
- Trunk
- Side
- Single, on the midline
About the right renal vein
The right renal vein returns blood from the right kidney to the inferior vena cava. The cava lies just to the right of the midline, close to the right kidney, so this vein is short, often only two or three centimetres, and runs almost horizontally. It enters the cava at about the level of the first lumbar vertebra, usually a little lower than its left partner.
Like its partner it is formed in the renal hilum, where several large veins leave the renal sinus. There it sits in front of the renal pelvis and generally in front of the renal artery. The venous channels within the kidney communicate freely, so, unlike the arterial supply, the drainage is not divided into separate segments. From the hilum the vein passes medially, behind the second part of the duodenum, and opens into the lateral side of the cava.
The two renal veins differ in their tributaries. On the left, the suprarenal, inferior phrenic and often a lumbar vein drain into the renal vein. On the right those vessels open directly into the inferior vena cava, so the right renal vein usually has no named tributaries apart from a small ureteric branch. Additional right renal veins are more common than on the left, and each may enter the cava separately. In the rare case of a left-sided cava, the right renal vein may have to cross behind the aorta to reach it.
The shortness of the vein shapes surgery. In a right nephrectomy or kidney donation there is little length to work with, and part of the cava wall may be taken to give the graft enough vein. Tumours of the right kidney can grow along the vein into the cava, and a mass in the cava may be found on scans before the kidney itself is suspected.
Course and drainage
- Begins at
- Formed at the hilum of the right kidney by the union of veins emerging from the renal sinus.
- Drains into
- Runs a short course medially behind the duodenum to open into the lateral side of the inferior vena cava at about L1.
- Drains
- Drains the right kidney and, through a small ureteric branch, the upper right ureter.
Anthromica
See the right renal 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.
