Anatom3DSuperior rectal vein
Vena rectalis superior · Horní konečníková žíla
Veins
Looks like
A vein running up from the upper rectum into the pelvis, continuing as the inferior mesenteric vein.
What it does
Drains the upper rectum into the portal system.
Keeping it well
In cirrhosis it can form rectal varices where it meets veins of the systemic circulation. Rectal bleeding always needs checking.
Related conditions
- Acute liver failure
- Acute porphyria
- Alcohol withdrawal and delirium tremens
- Alcohol-related liver disease
- Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency
- Autoimmune hepatitis
- Bile duct cancer (cholangiocarcinoma)
- Biliary atresia
- Brucellosis
- Chronic venous insufficiency
- Cirrhosis
- Clotting disorders (thrombophilia & APS)
- Deep vein thrombosis
- Dengue & mosquito-borne fevers
- Ebola virus disease
- Echinococcosis (hydatid disease)
- Eye melanoma (uveal melanoma)
- Gilbert's syndrome
- Haemochromatosis & Wilson's disease
- Hepatic encephalopathy
- High cholesterol
- Intestinal worms & schistosomiasis
- Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy
- Leishmaniasis
- Leptospirosis (Weil's disease)
- Liver abscess (pyogenic and amoebic)
- Liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma)
- Malaria
- Metabolic fatty liver disease (MASLD)
- Metabolic syndrome
- Myelofibrosis
- Newborn jaundice
- Phenylketonuria (PKU)
- Poisoning & overdose
- Portal vein thrombosis and Budd–Chiari syndrome
- Primary biliary cholangitis
- Primary sclerosing cholangitis
- Varicose veins
- Viral hepatitis (A, B, C, D, E)
- Yellow fever