Para-aortic (lumbar) lymph nodes

The lumbar (para-aortic) nodes form chains on either side of the abdominal aorta (left lateral aortic) and around the inferior vena cava (right lateral aortic, caval and interaortocaval nodes), from the aortic bifurcation to the aortic hiatus. They receive the efferents of the common iliac nodes — and therefore lymph from the lower limbs and pelvis — and drain directly the kidneys, adrenal glands, ureters, testes or ovaries, uterine tubes and fundus of the uterus, and the muscles of the posterior abdominal wall. Their efferent vessels form the right and left lumbar trunks, which empty into the cisterna chyli.

Because the gonads develop on the posterior abdominal wall and descend, dragging their vessels with them, testicular and ovarian lymph follows the gonadal vessels back to the para-aortic nodes at about L1–L2, not to the inguinal nodes.