The venae cavae
The veins gather what the arteries spread. The internal jugular veins from the head and the subclavian veins from the arms join behind the collarbones into the two brachiocephalic veins. These meet in the superior vena cava, which empties into the right atrium from above.
The superior and inferior venae cavae and their tributaries, the heart removed, Gray's Anatomy, 1918, figure 577Wikimedia Commons, Henry Vandyke Carter, Public domain (Gray577.png)
The inferior vena cava, the widest vein in the body, begins where the two common iliac veins meet, at the fifth lumbar vertebra. It climbs to the right of the aorta, takes in the renal and hepatic veins, passes through the diaphragm and enters the right atrium from below.
The azygos vein runs up beside the spine and collects blood from the walls of the chest. It arches over the root of the right lung into the superior vena cava, and gives blood a way round when the inferior vena cava is blocked.
Sources
- Susan Standring (ed.), Gray's Anatomy, 42nd ed. (2020), chapters on the great vessels, the mediastinum and the posterior abdominal wall.
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