Inferior thyroid veins Inferior thyroid veins The inferior thyroid veins appear two, frequently three or four, in number, and arise in the venous plexus on the thyroid gland, communicating with the middle and superior thyroid veins. While the superior and middle thyroid veins serve as direct tributaries to the internal jugular vein, the inferior thyroid veins drain directly to the brachiocephalic veins. They form a plexus in front of the trachea, behind the Sternothyreoidei. From this plexus, a left vein descends and joins the left brachiocephalic vein, and a right vein passes obliquely downward and to the right across the brachiocephalic artery to
Smallest cardiac veins Therefore, the endocardial opening must be traced to a vein before it is definitely called an opening of the smallest cardiac veins. The thebesian veins are named after the German anatomist Adam Christian Thebesius, who described them in a 1708 treatise called "Disputatio medica inauguralis de circulo sanguinis in corde". Smallest cardiac veins The smallest cardiac veins (or Thebesian veins) are minute valveless veins in the walls of all four heart chambers. The veins are sometimes accurately referred to as vessels, but they are frequently confused with a distinct set of artery connections eponymously referred to as the "vessels of