Air embolism and veins is greater than atmospheric pressure, an air embolus does not often happen when a blood vessel is injured. In the veins above the heart, such as in the head and neck, the venous pressure may be less than atmospheric and an injury may let air in. This is one reason why surgeons must be particularly careful when operating on the brain, and why the head of the bed is tilted down when inserting or removing a central venous catheter from the jugular or subclavian veins. When air enters the veins, it travels to the right side of the
Hepatic veins ultimately from numerous central veins of the liver lobules. None of the hepatic veins have valves. The hepatic veins are divided into an upper and a lower group. The upper three drain the central veins from the right, middle, and left regions of the liver and are larger than the lower group of veins. The lower group of from six to twenty smaller hepatic veins come from the right lobe and the caudate lobe, are in contact with the hepatic tissue, and are valveless. All the veins empty into the inferior vena cava at the back of the liver. Budd–Chiari