Internal Organs+Glands · 84. Male and female urethra · Anatomy · MU Sofia

Internal Organs+Glands · 84. Male and female urethra.

Covers the male urethra, split into pre-prostatic, prostatic, membranous and penile (spongy) parts, with their lengths and the structures each contains, and the female urethra, which is shorter and opens in the vestibule. It also compares the internal and external urethral sphincters in a table, then lists the arteries, veins, lymphatic drainage and nerve supply of the urethra.

Inside: 6 sections · 4 labelled pictures · 3 tables · 10 flashcards · 2 min

Topic 77 of 264 in the MU Sofia syllabus for Anatomy (Dental Medicine, Year 2). The free AceMed note covers it in 6 sections, about 169 words (2 min of reading), with 10 flashcards.

URETHRA

It is a thin walled muscular tube that drains the urine from the urinary bladder and conveys it out of the body.

Male urethra:

-It is total length about 8 inches (20cm).

Histology:

(Same as the bladder)

Female urethra:

It is about 1.5 inch (4 cm) long.
✓ It opens to the outside at the external urethral orifice which lies anterior to the vaginal opening (in the vestibule).
✓ It is embedded into the anterior wall of the vagina.

Vascular supply:

Arteries:

intramural part: inferior vesical artery (from the internal iliac artery)
pelvic part: uterine and vaginal arteries (from the internal iliac artery)
perineal part: internal pudendal artery (from the internal iliac artery)

Veins:

intramural part: vesical venous plexus (via the vesical veins to the internal iliac vein)
pelvic part: vaginal venous plexus (via the vaginal veins to the internal iliac vein)
perineal part: internal pudendal veins (to the internal iliac vein)

Lymphatic drainage: paravesical nodes (to the common, internal and external iliac nodes)

Sympathetic and parasympathetic, visceral sensory and (somatic) motor nerve fibers: vesical plexus