Posterior vena cava is the largest venous trunk in the body. It is formed under the body of the fifth lumbar vertebra by the union of the two common iliac veins (each common iliac vein is formed by the union of the external and internal iliac veins).
It receives the middle sacral vein passes forwards below the bodies of the lumbar vertebrae slightly to the right of the median plane and the abdominal aorta.
It leaves the company of the aorta about the level of hiatus aorticus downwards and forwards reaches the upper part of the left border of the liver runs forwards partly embedded along the left border of the liver.
Then it passes through the foramen vena cava and enters the thoracic cavity runs forwards in the groove between the mediastinal and diaphragmatic lobes of the right lung in company with the phrenic nerve enclosed in a special fold of the pleura and opens into the posterior part of the sinus venorum of the right auricle.
- Its tributaries are-
- Common iliac veins
- Middle sacral vein
- Internal spermatic veins
- Renal
- Hepatic and
- Phrenic veins
