Blood Supply of the Rectum

00:01 Now, let's have a look at the blood supply of the rectum.

00:05 So the rectum is this direct continuation of the sigmoid colon, it will then continue through the anal canal and then the anus.

00:12 And the blood supply to the rectum is from some very specific regions.

00:16 We have the superior rectal artery, which is coming from the inferior mesenteric artery.

00:22 And that's supplying the upper portion of the rectum.

00:25 We then have the middle rectal artery, which as we just noted is coming from the branch before the termination of the internal iliac anterior division.

00:35 So here we have the middle rectal artery coming from the internal iliac arteries anterior division.

00:42 Finally, we have the inferior rectal artery.

00:45 And the inferior rectal artery is coming from the internal pudendal artery.

00:49 And we saw the internal pudendal artery is coming from the terminal branches of the internal iliac anterior division.

00:59 All three of these blood vessels will contribute to a connection of blood vessels throughout the rectum.

01:05 Obviously, we call these anastomosis.

01:07 So the superior, middle, inferior all with different origins will form this anastomotic network around the rectum.

01:16 So that brings us to the end of the topic on the branches of the internal iliac artery and how they supply the pelvis.

01:23 There's lots of complicated combinations of blood vessels, but it's really helpful to just simplify them down into the anterior and posterior divisions.

01:31 Write down a list of structures that are within the pelvis for both male and female and see if you can identify which blood vessels supply which organs.

01:39 The names clearly help you with that work.