Anatomy study note · Perineum

Male urethra

About 20 cm long, from the bladder neck to the external meatus on the glans. It has prostatic, intermediate (membranous) and penile (spongy) parts.

Key points

• ~20 cm: prostatic (3 cm), intermediate (1.25 cm), penile (~15.75 cm).
• Widest: prostatic. Least dilatable: intermediate. Narrowest: external meatus.
• Sphincter urethrae around the intermediate part.
• Bulbar rupture → urine in the scrotum, penis and lower abdominal wall, not the thigh.
• Penile urethra: phallic UGS; glans part: ectoderm.
• Prostatic: transitional. Spongy: pseudostratified/stratified columnar.
• Glands of Littré.

The full note in the atlas also covers

Features · Histology · Development · Clinical notes

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Written from

• Snell’s Clinical Anatomy by Regions, 10th ed., ch. 10, PDF pp. 1205–1210
• Inderbir Singh’s Human Embryology, ch. 16, PDF pp. 277, 288–289
• BRS Cell Biology & Histology, 7th ed., ch. 18, PDF p. 335; ch. 20, PDF p. 372

More from the perineum

• Penis
• Pudendal nerve
• Superficial transverse perineal muscle
• Dorsal vessels of the penis
• External anal sphincter

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