Medical expert of the article
New publications
Penis
Last reviewed: 28.11.2021
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
The penis (penis) serves to remove urine from the bladder and throw the seed into the genital tract of the woman. The penis consists of a front free body part (corpus penis), which ends with a glans penis, which has a slit-shaped external aperture of the male urethrae externum on its apex .
The largest part of the head of the penis is the crown of the head (corona glandis) and the narrowed neck of the head (collum glandis). The back part - the root of the penis (radix penis) is attached to the pubic bones. The upper anterior surface of the body is called the back of the penis (dorsum penis).
The body of the penis is covered with a thin, light, shifting skin, passing into the skin of the pubis at the top and the skin of the scrotum underneath. On the skin of the lower surface of the penis there is a seam of the penis (raphe penis), which extends posteriorly to the skin of the scrotum and perineum. In the anterior part of the body of the penis, the skin forms a well-defined skin fold - the flesh of the penis (preputium penis), which closes the head, then passes into the skin of the glans penis. The foreskin is attached to the neck of the head. Between the head of the penis and the foreskin is a cavity of the foreskin, which in front opens with an opening that passes the head of the penis when the foreskin is moved backward. On the underside of the glans penis, the foreskin is connected to the head by the bridle of the foreskin (frenulum preputii), which almost reaches the edge of the external opening of the urethra. The inner surface of the skin fold, as well as the head is covered with a thin delicate translucent skin, different from the skin covering the body of the penis. The skin of the inner leaf of the foreskin contains glands of the foreskin (gll.preputiales).
The penile cavernous body of the penis (corpus cavernosum penis), right and left, is distinguished from the penis. They are located side by side. Under them lies the unpaired spongy body of the penis (corpus spongiosum penis). Each corpus cavernosum is cylindrical in shape. The posterior ends of the cavernous bodies are pointed, diverge in the side in the form of the legs of the penis (crura penis), which attach to the lower branches of the pubic bones. The cavernous bodies are joined to each other by medial surfaces and are covered with a common envelope of cavernous bodies (tunica albuginea corporum caver nosorum), which forms a septum penis between the corpus cavernosum. The spongy body of the penis in the posterior (proximal) section is expanded and forms a bulb of the penis (bulbus penis). The anterior (distal) end of the spongy body is sharply thickened and forms the glans penis. The spongy body is covered with its own belly coat of the spongy body (tunica albuginea corporis spongiosi) and is pierced through the urethra, which ends at the glans penis with an external aperture that looks like a vertical slit.
The cavernous and spongy bodies of the penis consist of numerous connective tissue trunks, trabeculae, which branch off from the belly shell, delimiting the system of interconnected cavities (cells) lined with endothelium. When filled with blood, their walls are straightened, the cavernous and spongy bodies of the penis swell, become dense (the erection of the penis).
The cavernous and spongy bodies of the penis are surrounded by connective tissue plates - deep and superficial fascia (fascia penis profunda et fascia penis superficialis). On the dorsal surface of the penis, closer to its root, fasciae are better expressed due to the fact that in this place the tendons of bulbous-spongy and ischial-cavernous muscles pass in them. Outside the superficial fascia is the skin. The penis is also fixed by two suspending ligaments-surfaces and deep. The superficially located penis-suspending ligament begins on the lower surface of the fascia of the abdomen, in the region of the white line, and is woven into the superficial fascia of the penis. The deep peri-niche ligament (lig.fundiforme) has the form of a triangle, runs from the lower part of the pubic symphysis, divides into two fascicles and is weaved in the belly shell of the lateral surfaces of the cavernous bodies.
[Vessels and nerves of the penis
The skin and membranes of the penis are supplied with anterior scrotal branches from the outer genital arteries and the dorsal artery of the penis from the internal sexual artery. To the cavernous and spongy bodies of the penis, blood flows along the deep artery of the penis and the dorsal artery of the penis - both of the inner sexual artery. In the bulb of the penis arteries of the bulb of the penis come into the spongy body - the arteries of the urethra (branches of the internal sexual artery).
Venous blood from the penis flows down the deep dorsal vein of the penis and through the vein of the bulb of the penis into the urinary venous plexus, and also along the deep veins of the penis into the inner genital vein.
Lymphatic vessels of the penis flow into the internal iliac and superficial inguinal lymph nodes. The sensory nerve is the dorsal nerve of the penis from the genital nerve. Sympathetic fibers come from the lower hypogastric plexuses, and parasympathetic fibers from the pelvic internal nerves.