00:01
Now, let's talk about the
suprarenal or the adrenal glands.
00:05
And we have two of these that
are situated on the superior pole
of both of our kidneys.
00:10
We have the right suprarenal gland
here and the left over on this side.
00:15
Let's have a closer look
at the suprarenal glands.
00:18
Here we can see the right suprarenal
gland. It is triangular in shape.
00:23
It has the inferior vena
cava running medially
and it has the liver
running laterally.
00:29
If we look at the
left suprarenal gland,
we can see it's more
semilunar in shape,
but often this will vary
from person to person.
00:38
We have the spleen situated
laterally towards it.
00:41
And also the pancreas is
directly anterior to it.
00:44
It'll have the stomach
position to anterior as well.
00:48
If we were to draw a section
through the suprarenal gland,
we can see there's
actually two parts.
00:53
There's an inner medulla
and an outer cortex.
00:57
And this aspects of the
adrenal gland is important
as it produces hormones
as an endocrine organ
that go into the blood supply like
adrenaline and mineral corticoids.
01:08
And the adrenal cortex and medulla
have an important role to play
in supplying those hormones
into the blood system.
01:16
Talking about that
we need to then address
the arterial supply
to the adrenal glands
to take the various nutrients
to the adrenal gland
so they can function and
then discharge those hormones
into the venous supply.
01:28
So here we can see
that arterial supply
to the kidney to the adrenal gland.
01:34
We're looking at the
one on the right,
and we can see that we ultimately
have a superior super renal artery.
01:41
This is coming from the
inferior phrenic artery.
01:44
We then have a middle
suprarenal artery,
and this typically comes from
the abdominal aorta itself.
01:50
Then we have the inferior
suprarenal artery,
and this comes from
the renal artery.
01:56
So each adrenal gland,
each suprarenal gland
is supplied by three arteries:
superior, middle, and inferior.
02:05
The superior one comes
from the inferior phrenic.
02:08
The middle one comes directly
from the abdominal aorta,
and the inferior one comes
from the renal artery itself.
02:17
Now let's look at
the venous drainage
where all of these hormones
will be discharged into.
02:22
And simply here we can see the
left and right renal veins.
02:25
And here you can see the
right suprarenal vein
coming from the
right adrenal gland.
02:30
On the left hand side,
we can see the left suprarenal vein
draining into the left renal vein.
02:36
What this diagram
doesn't really portray
is the high number of blood
vessels in this space.
02:42
They are very small,
and there are lots of tributaries
forming the capillary bed,
where the venules and arterioles of
these core arteries merge together
and allow that capillary bed
to function effectively
allowing the hormones
produced by the adrenal glands
to enter into the renal system and
be distributed throughout the body.
03:03
Here we can see
the inferior vena cava,
which ultimately takes
all of these hormones now
within the blood back to the heart
to be spread across the
general circulation.