As adults, they make their way to the inferior mesenteric vein and mate, producing thousands of eggs.

A dilated inferior mesenteric vein may or may not be related to portal hypertension.

S. mekongi is related to S. japonicum and affects both the superior and inferior mesenteric veins.

Occasionally, the hepatic portal vein also directly communicates with the inferior mesenteric vein, although this is highly variable.

In human anatomy, the inferior mesenteric vein (IMV) is a blood vessel that drains blood from the large intestine.

It is a tributary of the inferior mesenteric vein, and follows the path of its corresponding artery, the left colic artery.

The IMA is accompanied along its course by a similarly named vein, the inferior mesenteric vein, which drains into the splenic vein.

The superior rectal vein leaves the lesser pelvis and crosses the left common iliac vessels with the superior rectal artery, and is continued upward as the inferior mesenteric vein.

The upper part of the external plexus is drained by the superior rectal vein which forms the commencement of the inferior mesenteric vein, a tributary of the portal vein.

The left is somewhat higher than the right; it lies behind the left renal vein, the body of the pancreas and the splenic vein, and is crossed by the inferior mesenteric vein.

It collects branches from the stomach and pancreas and most notably from the large intestine (inferior mesenteric vein), which is drained by the superior mesenteric vein and joins with splenic vein shortly before it forms the portal vein.

Venous drainage usually mirrors colonic arterial supply, with the inferior mesenteric vein draining into the splenic vein, and the superior mesenteric vein joining the splenic vein to form the hepatic portal vein that then enters the liver.

In contrast to the drainage of midgut and hindgut structures by the superior mesenteric vein and inferior mesenteric vein respectively, venous return from the coeliac artery is through either the splenic vein emptying into the hepatic portal vein or via smaller tributaries of the portal venous system.