In this lecture we are going to look
at the male reproductive organs.
But we also, because we are in this region,
going to look at the bladder and the rectum.
So we will start off with by looking at
the boundaries of the abdomiopelvic cavity
and looking at the bony pelvis.
This is important as we progress
now into the pelvic part of the course.
We will look at the bladder. Its relation
to the other organs and its structure.
And then we spend considerable time
looking at the male reproductive
organs. We will look at the testes.
We will look at the ductus deference.
We then look at the seminal vesicles,
the ejaculatory ducts and the prostate.
And then we will look most posteriorly within
the pelvis, and we will look at the rectum.
The relations of the rectum and also
the structure of the rectum itself.
But essentially the main focus of this
lecture is the male reproductive organ
and these are essential for
the sexual reproduction.
They produce, store and
expel the male gamete
sperm, during sexual intercourse.
But let's have a look at the abdominopelvic
cavity and specifically the pelvis
and that's what we are looking at here.
Previously we saw the posterior abdominal wall
filling this kind of space around
here. But now we are concentrating
purely on this region.
This is the pelvis
or the innominate bones and we
are really be going to concentrating on
the structures that are
found within this region.
But remember that the abdominal contents
extend into the pelvic cavity.
So one like the thorax and the abdomen
which is separated by that partition
the diaphragm. There
is no clear separation.
Remember, the abdominal viscera
are bound by the peritoneum.
That doesn't happen in the pelvis.
The peritoneum drapes on top
of the pelvic organs. I will
explore that as we will go on.
Now the pelvic cavity,
space is bounded by bones,
ligaments and muscles.
And it contains the urinary
system - the ureters and the bladder.
Pelvic reproduction organs: In the male
we have the prostate, seminal vesicles.
In the female we have
the uterus and the ovaries.
And it also contains the distal parts
of the gastrointestinal tract, the rectum.
So if we look at the bony pelvis then we can see there
is various structures that we need to be familiar with.
So if we look, we can see
posteriorly here we have the
space where the 5th
lumbar vertebrae will sit
and then we have the sacrum
which we can see down here. And then
most inferiorly we have the coccyx
and this marks the posterior
boundary of the pelvis.
We can see that if we look at the
sagittal section, we can see we have
L5 vertebrae here.
And then we have the sacrum which is radiating
in this direction finishing up with the coccyx.
We can see most anteriorly we
have the pubic symphysis here
and then next to it, we have the pubic
crest which is running along here.
Running from the pubic
crest all the way around
to the sacrum we have
this pelvic brim
and that's running
all the way around
and that's forming
this nice pelvic brim.
That's separate as we see the
greater from the lesser pelvis.
We can see this also in the sagittal
section where we have the pubic symphysis
here and then we have the
pelvic brim running along here.
We can also see if we
radiate away inferiorly
from the pubic symphysis. We can see what's
known as the inferior pubic ramus here
and that runs towards the ischium and you
have the ischio pubic ramus along here.
This part is called the
superior pubic ramus.
We can see this create a foramen
and that's obdurator foramen
and previously we spoke
about obdurator foramen
having obdurator artery pass through.
We will soon see the obdurator
artery, nerve and veins
passes through it.
We can see posteriorly on
the ischium we have these
little notches. These are known as
the greater and the lesser sciatic
notches. And these notches
are converted into foramina
via a series of important ligaments.
Here we have what's known as the ischial spine
and here we have the ischial tuberosity.
Connecting the ischial
spine to the sacrum
is the sacrospinous ligament
which we can see here.
Connecting the ischial tuberosity
to the sacrum, we have the
which we can see up here.
And these two ligaments convert
these notches into foramina.
So now we have the greater sciatic foramen
and we have the lesser sciatic foramen.
We will come back to these when we look at the
perineum. But they are really important structures.
So superiorly when we looked down onto the pelvis,
we can see what's known as the pelvic inlet.
And that is bordered by the
pelvic brim, the pubic symphysis
and the sacral promontory
which we can see here.
We can demarcate that in the sagittal one by
this line here, and that's the pelvic inlet.
We also have the pelvic outlet and that's
bordered by the pelvic diaphragm.
and the pubic symphysis and the coccyx.
And that is going to be running
down in this region here
and that is the pelvic outlet.
So we have structures entering into
the pelvis through the pelvic inlet
and things can pass out of
the pelvis via the pelvic outlet
and we can see that here.
The pelvic inlet is separating
the pelvis into greater
and lesser pelvis. Above
the pelvic inlet we have the greater pelvis
which is going to be this region up here.
And that contains the ileum and
it contains the sigmoid colon.
Below this pelvic brim we
have the lesser pelvis.
and that's in this region
here which contains the bladder,
and also the rectum.
The inferior limits of the pelvic...
of the lesser pelvis of the...
inferior limit of the lesser pelvis
is the pelvic diaphragm and
it is a sheet of muscle.
The pelvic diaphragm is very
similar to the diaphragm
in that it separates
the lesser pelvis
from a region called the perineum which
we will explore in a later class.
So they got the lesser pelvis
and they got the pelvic diaphragm
and then you got the
So this muscular separation, much like
the diaphragm; this muscular diaphragm
separates the thorax from the abdomen.
So that's the bony pelvis and we'll
refer these structures
through out this lecture
and lectures to come.