Boundaries of the Inguinal Canal

00:01 Now let's turn our attention to the boundaries of the inguinal canal.

00:05 Previously, we spoke briefly about its contents and how the deep and superficial inguinal rings are formed.

00:11 Now let's look at its boundaries where there is an anterior and posterior wall.

00:15 There's also a floor and a roof. Let's start with the anterior wall.

00:20 And as we can see here highlighted in green, this lateral section is formed by both the external and internal oblique muscles.

00:28 More medially we have the external oblique aponeurosis.

00:32 And remember, this is where the spermatic cord or the round ligament of the uterus passed through forming the superficial inguinal ring.

00:39 And then parts of that are forming the lateral and medial crura, around it.

00:44 Let's have a look at the posterior wall.

00:46 And with the posterior wall as the testes have penetrated through this layer, we have transversalis fascia, and that's forming the most posterior boundary.

00:55 Moving more medially, we can see how the aponeurosis of transversus abdominis and the aponeurosis of internal oblique from the conjoint tendon.

01:06 So here, if remember the anatomy around the rectus sheath, both these two layers now form anteriorly to the rectus sheath.

01:16 And as they form anteriorly to the rectus sheath immediately behind the superficial inguinal ring, they unite together, and we call this the conjoint tendon.

01:27 The superficial inguinal ring as we'll come to see later on is a potential area of weakness associated with inguinal hernias.

01:35 And this conjoint tendon, the union of the transverse abdominis and the internal oblique aponeurosis forms this tendon, a thickening band that helps to reinforce the area immediately posterior to the superficial inguinal ring.

01:49 It forms the posterior wall.

01:52 The final aspect we want to look at is the floor and really the floor was formed by the inguinal ligament.

01:57 This is the under curving of the external oblique aponeurosis as it runs from the anterior superior iliac spine, all the way down through to the pubic tubercle.

02:08 So that are the boundaries of the inguinal canal.