superior mesenteric vein

In anatomy, the superior mesenteric vein (SMV) is a blood vessel that drains blood from the small intestine. At its termination behind the neck of the pancreas, the SMV combines with the splenic vein to form the hepatic portal vein. The SMV lies to the right of the similarly named artery, the superior mesenteric artery, which originates from the abdominal aorta. [WP,unvetted]. Every claim on this page comes from the Leumas anatomy graph and carries its source.

What the superior mesenteric vein is

In anatomy, the superior mesenteric vein (SMV) is a blood vessel that drains blood from the small intestine. At its termination behind the neck of the pancreas, the SMV combines with the splenic vein to form the hepatic portal vein. The SMV lies to the right of the similarly named artery, the superior mesenteric artery, which originates from the abdominal aorta. [WP,unvetted]. The atlas records it as a vein at the organ scale in the human body.

Where the superior mesenteric vein is

It sits within the cardiovascular system. Positioned deliberately as part of this species body plan.

What the superior mesenteric vein connects to

The atlas records 14 typed relationships for it, across 7 kinds of connection. part of portal system.

Supply and innervation

Venous drainage: cystic vein, ileal vein, ileocolic vein, jejunal vein, middle colic vein and pancreaticoduodenal vein, and 2 more.

Also called

Also recorded as upper mesenteric vein and vena mesenterica superior. Searching any of those names reaches this page.

Source

Uberon multi-species anatomy ontology (Mungall et al.), CC BY 4.0. Term UBERON:0001138, version 2026-06-19, retrieved 2026-08-24. Licence: CC-BY-4.0.

• Part of: portal system.
• A kind of: vein.
• Connected to: hepatic portal vein.
• Drains: small intestine.
• drains to: cystic vein, ileal vein, ileocolic vein, jejunal vein, middle colic vein and pancreaticoduodenal vein, and 2 more.
• Develops from: vitelline vein.
• contains: ileal vein.

Questions

Where is the superior mesenteric vein?

It sits within the cardiovascular system. Positioned deliberately as part of this species body plan.

What does the superior mesenteric vein connect to?

Part of: portal system.

Is the superior mesenteric vein the same in other species?

Leumas holds the same relationship vocabulary for every species it carries, so where another dataset records this structure you can put the two side by side on /compare.