Venous Drainage of the Heart
- About 2/3 of the venous drainage of the heart is achieved by veins whcich accompany the coronary arteries and which open into the right atrium.
- The rest of the blood drains by means of small veins (called as venae cordis minimae) directly into the cardiac cavity.
- By looking at the posterior aspect of the heart, we can see the veins come from coronary sinus lies in the posterior atrioventricular groove and opens into the right atrium just to the left of the mouth of the inferior vena cava.
- Then later, it branches into;
- the great cardiac vein in the anterior interventricular groove (can be seen at anterior view of the heart)
- the middle cardiac vein the inferior interventricular groove;
- the small cardiac vein – accompanying the marginal artery along the lower border of the heart,
- the oblique vein – descends obliquely on the posterior aspect of the left atrium (not labeled in the picture, located just above the circumflex coronary artery)
- At the anterior surface of the heart, anterior cardiac veins (up to three or four in number) cross the anterior atrioventricular groove, drain much of the anterior surface of the heart and open directly into the right atrium.
Click here to read about coronary arteries (in bahasa Malaysia)
All images are taken from http://home.comcast.net/
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