Anatomy of Ureter

If you should take a look at a picture of the kidney you will see two structres running from the kidney to the urinary bladder. These two structures are known as the ureter.

The ureters are small muscular tubes about 25-30cm long that carries urine from the kidneys to urinary bladder through a peristaltic movement. The ureters emerge from the tip of the renal pelves at the hilum of the kidney.

After exiting the kidneys, the ureters run in front (anterior) of the psoas major and pass over the brim of the pelvis at the bifurcation of the common iliac arteries and enter the fundus of the urinary bladder.

Major Constrictions of the Ureter

The ureters have three major constrictions that occurs at the:

  1.  Renal pelvis: At the junction of the ureters and renal pelves.
  2.  Pelvic brim: this is when the ureters pass the brim of the pelvic inlet at the bifurcation of the common iliac artery or the beginning of the external iliac artery.
  3.  Ureterovesticular junction: this is during the course of the ureter through the urinary bladder.

These major areas of constriction are sites for potential obstruction of kidney stones.

A point to note: the ureters run differently in females and males. In females the ureters runs below  (inferior) to the uterine artery.

The ureter gets it’s blood supply from the:

Ureter Blood Supply
                • renal arteries
                • Gonadal arteries
                • Common iliac a
                • Uterine or inferior vesical arteries
                • Middle rectal artery


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