Coronary sinus tree

Looks like

The coronary sinus — a wide venous channel in the back groove between left atrium and ventricle — and the cardiac veins that feed it.

What it does

Collects most of the heart muscle's used blood and empties it into the right atrium.

Keeping it well

Pacing leads for heart failure (biventricular pacemakers) are threaded through it into a side vein on the left ventricle.

Its parts

• Great cardiac vein
• Left marginal vein
• Posterior vein of left ventricle
• Middle cardiac vein
• Small cardiac vein

Related conditions

• 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (DiGeorge)
• Aortic stenosis
• Atrial flutter
• Cardiomyopathy (dilated, restrictive, arrhythmogenic)
• Chagas disease
• Chronic venous insufficiency
• Clotting disorders (thrombophilia & APS)
• Congenital heart defects
• Coronary artery disease
• Deep vein thrombosis
• Diphtheria
• Down syndrome (trisomy 21)
• Eating disorders
• Extra heartbeats (ectopics and palpitations)
• Fainting (syncope)
• Friedreich's ataxia
• Heart failure
• Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
• Hypothermia & frostbite
• Kawasaki disease
• Long QT syndrome
• Myocarditis
• Orthostatic hypotension & POTS
• Panic disorder
• Pericardial effusion & tamponade
• Pericarditis
• Shock (circulatory failure)
• Sudden cardiac arrest
• Sudden infant death syndrome
• Supraventricular tachycardia
• Takotsubo (stress) cardiomyopathy
• Tuberous sclerosis complex
• Varicose veins
• Wolff–Parkinson–White syndrome