Cardiac veins, an anatomical review
Mohammad W. Kassem, Sasha Lake, Wallisa Roberts, Sonja Salandy, Marios Loukas
Abstract
The detailed investigations of the coronary arteries overshadow the anatomy and clinical relevance of the coronary venous tree. Many recent advances in diagnostic and therapeutic interventional cardiac procedures now involve manipulations of the coronary veins. The aim of this paper is to provide a review of the coronary venous tree to assist in enhancing the clinical knowledge on the anatomy of the coronary veins. A literature search was conducted using google scholar, and pubmed NCBI data basem in search of peer-reviewed literature with keyword search including history of cardiac veins, coronary vein anatomy, and cardiac veins. Cardiac procedures such as ablations and retrograde cardioplegia depends on the ability to of the clinician to accurately identify critical cardiac venous structures from imaging studies and while during procedures. These advances demand that clinicians have a deeper understanding of the coronary venous tree as it relates to their anatomy and variants.