the.com/vena cava
The body's two biggest return pipes, dumping used blood back into the heart's lobby.
means Either of the two large veins—superior and inferior—that carry deoxygenated blood from the upper and lower body back into the right atrium of the heart.
from Straight from Latin: 'vena' means vein, and 'cava' means hollow — from 'cavus,' hollow or cave-like. So literally, 'hollow vein,' named simply for its wide, pipe-like bore compared to other veins. The plural, 'venae cavae,' keeps its Latin grammar intact in modern anatomy textbooks, a small fossil of the old science-speak.
- two of them
- superior drains the head, inferior drains the legs
- largest vein
- inferior vena cava is the body's biggest vein
- one-way traffic
- flows only toward the heart, never away
- pregnancy hazard
- lying flat can let the uterus compress it