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introductionstatpearls· Introduction· item NBK541040

The venous drainage system of the heart can subdivide into a greater and lesser cardiac venous system (CVS).[1] The greater cardiac venous system parallels the coronary arterial circulation on the epicardial surface of the heart, providing approximately 70% of the venous drainage. The lesser cardiac venous system runs in the myocardial layer of the heart, providing up to 30% of the venous drainage.[1] The lesser cardiac venous system includes the Thebesian veins/vessels.[1] The Thebesian veins/vessels were first studied by French anatomist Raymond Vieussens and German anatomist Adam Christian Thebesius, from whom they derive their name, who both described the vascular network in their research of the coronary circulation.[2] These vessels are also known as the "venae cordis minimae" as they are the smallest of the coronary veins behind the great, middle, and small coronary veins.[2] The Thebesian vessels are unique to the cardiac circulation and help to drain the blood supply of the myocardium through a direct connection between the atrial and ventricular chamber lumina and the larger coronary vessels on the epicardial surface.[2]