Internal pudendal artery

Internal pudendal artery

Internal iliac artery with branches, including internal pudendal artery.

The superficial branches of the internal pudendal artery.
Details
Source internal iliac artery
Vein Internal pudendal veins
Supplies external genitalia, perineum
Identifiers
Latin arteria pudenda interna
Dorlands
/Elsevier
Internal pudendal artery
TA A12.2.15.038
FMA 18835

Anatomical terminology

The internal pudendal artery is one of the three pudendal arteries that branches off the internal iliac artery, providing blood to the external genitalia.

The internal pudendal artery is the terminal branch of the anterior trunk of the internal iliac artery. It is smaller in the female than in the male.

Path

It exits the pelvic cavity through the greater sciatic foramen, inferior to the piriformis muscle, to enter the gluteal region.

It then curves around the sacrospinous ligament to enter the perineum through the lesser sciatic foramen.

It travels through the pudendal canal with the internal pudendal veins and the pudendal nerve.

Branches

The internal pudendal artery gives off the following branches:

In females In males Description
Inferior rectal artery Inferior rectal artery to anal canal
Perineal artery Perineal artery supplies transversus perinei superficialis muscle
Posterior labial branches Posterior scrotal branches -
Artery of bulb of vestibule Artery of bulb of penis supplies bulb of vestibule/bulb of penis
Dorsal artery of clitoris Dorsal artery of the penis -
Deep artery of clitoris Deep artery of the penis to corpus cavernosum penis

Some sources consider the urethral artery a direct branch of the internal pudendal artery,[1] while others consider it a branch of the perineal artery.

In males, the internal pudendal artery also gives rise to the perforating arteries of the penis.

Additional images

See also

References

  1. "Internal pudendal artery" at Dorland's Medical Dictionary

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, April 23, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.