Blood vesselVein

Left pulmonary veins

Latin: Venae pulmonales sinistrae

Location: Thorax

View the left pulmonary veins in 3D

Course

Usually two veins (superior and inferior) leave the left lung's hilum to enter the left atrium's posterior wall — after birth, the only veins carrying oxygenated blood.

Drains

Left lung's freshly oxygenated blood.

Clinical relevance

Atrial fibrillation's arrhythmogenic foci cluster at their muscular sleeves — pulmonary vein isolation is the electrophysiologist's catheter map. In anomalous pulmonary venous return, oxygenated blood drains into the systemic veins instead (on the right, scimitar syndrome drains to the IVC).

Educational anatomy reference, not medical advice. About this content.