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Venous Drainage of the Lower Limb
Venous return
Deep and superficial veins
Blood entering superficial veins passes to the deep veins through communicating veins
Contraction of skeletal muscles act like peripheral heart pumping the blood up
Backward flow prevented by numerous valves
Superficial veins have less surrounding support
The deep veins
Digital veins
Plantar veins
Posterior tibial vein
Anterior tibial vein
Popliteal vein
femoral vein
External iliac vein
Internal iliac vein
Common iliac vein
The course
Femoral vein continues as the external iliac vein beyond the inguinal ligament into the abdomen
It is close to the femoral artery and the external iliac artery
The superficial veins
Small saphenous vein
Begins behind the ankle joint by the confluence of many small veins from the dorsum of foot
Ascends to the popliteal fossa
There it joins the popliteal vein
Great saphenous vein
The longest vein
Begins at the medial half of the dorsum of the foot and runs along the anterior surface of the ankle to the medial malleolus.
Runs along the medial side of the leg and thigh and joins the femoral vein just below the inguinal ligament
At the saphenofemoral junction there is an important valve
Perforators and valves
These superficial veins are connected to the deep veins by communicating veins called perforators which have valves to prevent flow from depth to surface
Applied anatomy
Incompetence of the perforators and valves due to damage to the valves cause back flow and back pressure in the superficial veins causing varicose veins
