20th February 2024

Head and neck

The Nervous System section covers the venous return from the cranium, and these vessels will drain into the internal jugular vein. The external face drains into the external jugular vein, and its tributaries are the posterior auricular and retromandibular veins. 

The external jugular veins will empty into the subclavian vein. The internal jugular veins combine with the subclavian veins to form the brachiocephalic veins. The brachiocephalic veins will unite at the right side of the superior mediastinum to form the SVC, and this drains directly into the right atrium.

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons (2013). 2135 Veins Draining into Superior Vena Cava Chart, Licensed under a creative commons licence. Available for free at: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/2135_Veins_Draining_into_Superior_Vena_Cava_Chart.jpg (Accessed: 9 January 2024).