(2.44)
Now that we understand the inguinal ligament and the femoral triangle, we can move on and look at the blood vessels in the hip region, starting with a brief look at the principal veins. Almost all the veins in the region run parallel to arteries of the same name, so we won't need to look at them all separately. There's just one important vein we do need to look at, that has no corresponding artery - the long saphenous vein, also called the greater saphenous vein. With t he main vein there's a change of name that we need to understand. Below the inguinal ligament it's called the femoral vein. Above the inguinal ligament it's called the external iliac vein. It's the same with the artery. The vessels themselves don't change, just their names.
Here's the thigh with just the skin removed. The anterior superior iliac spine is here. Here's the long saphenous vein, which starts at the ankle, and passes up the medial side of the knee, and up to the top of the thigh. We'll remove all the subcutaneous fat to see it better. The inguinal ligament runs from here to here. Here's the fascia lata. Superficial veins from other parts of the region join the upper end of the long saphenous vein which passes through an opening in the fascia lata, the saphenous hiatus. Here, near the top of the saphenous vein are two of the inguinal lymph nodes. The main lymphatic vessels draining the lower extremity pass under the inguinal ligament here.
To see where the saphenous vein goes, we'll remove the fascia lata, and the underlying fat. Here are the main blood vessels to the leg - the femoral vein, and artery, and this is the femoral nerve. The long saphenous vein ends by ...
(2.44)
Now that we understand the inguinal ligament and the femoral triangle, we can move on and look at the blood vessels in the hip region, starting with a brief look at the principal veins. Almost all the veins in the region run parallel to arteries of the same name, so we won't need to look at them all separately. There's just one important vein we do need to look at, that has no corresponding artery - the long saphenous vein, also called the greater saphenous vein. With t he main vein there's a change of name that we need to understand. Below the inguinal ligament it's called the femoral vein. Above the inguinal ligament it's called the external iliac vein. It's the same with the artery. The vessels themselves don't change, just their names.
Here's the thigh with just the skin removed. The anterior superior iliac spine is here. Here's the long saphenous vein, which starts at the ankle, and passes up the medial side of the knee, and up to the top of the thigh. We'll remove all the subcutaneous fat to see it better. The inguinal ligament runs from here to here. Here's the fascia lata. Superficial veins from other parts of the region join the upper end of the long saphenous vein which passes through an opening in the fascia lata, the saphenous hiatus. Here, near the top of the saphenous vein are two of the inguinal lymph nodes. The main lymphatic vessels draining the lower extremity pass under the inguinal ligament here.
To see where the saphenous vein goes, we'll remove the fascia lata, and the underlying fat. Here are the main blood vessels to the leg - the femoral vein, and artery, and this is the femoral nerve. The long saphenous vein ends by joining the femoral vein here.
The femoral vein passes beneath the inguinal ligament. To see where it goes, we'll remove the abdominal wall, leaving just the inguinal ligament. This is the inguinal ligament, this is the top of the pubis. Here the vein is called the femoral vein, here above the inguinal ligament it's the external iliac vein; it's all the same vessel. To see where it goes, we'll remove the artery.
This muscle is the psoas major muscle. The external iliac vein is joined by the internal iliac vein to form the common iliac vein The right and left common iliac veins join in the midline to form the inferior vena cava.