Contents of the Inguinal Canal

00:01 So now let's move on and have a look at the contents of the inguinal canal and what is actually situated within it.

00:07 Now, as I've alluded to previously, the male and female, the inguinal canals are very different.

00:12 And this is partly due to the embryological difference between the biologically male and the biologically female sexes.

00:19 In the female, we really just have a continuation of embryological development around the uterus that sends a ligament the round ligament of the uterus through this space Within the biological male is a much more substantial structure, and that is the spermatic cord, partly due to the gonads in the male being outside the body cavity.

00:39 The gonads in the female, the ovaries, are retained within the pelvis.

00:44 But because of the migration of the male gonads out of the body, this forms a much more substantial inguinal region in the male, and we have the spermatic cord.

00:54 The superficial and the deep inguinal ring, the inguinal canal is therefore much more substantial.

01:00 So let's have a look. And let's focus on the male inguinal canal.

01:04 So what we're looking at in this diagram is a window into that canal.

01:08 Both external oblique and internal oblique muscles have been opened up to reveal the inguinal canal.

01:15 You can just see parts of transverse abdominis at the top above the spermatic cord running transversely across.

01:22 So here we see in green, that ilioinguinal nerve within the inguinal canal but not in the spermatic cord.

01:30 What we can see here in green is the genital branch of the genital femoral nerve.

01:35 We've left the ilioinguinal nerve in yellow here to show that it's outside the spermatic cord.

01:40 But now within the sheath that is formed by the various layers, the spermatic cord is formed by.

01:47 We can see we have the genital branch of the genital femoral nerve.

01:50 And here we can see indicated as the spermatic cord.

01:54 See how the yellow genital femoral branch is deep to that green ring indicating it is within the spermatic cord.

02:03 We also finally have the ductus or the vas deferens within the spermatic cord as well.

02:07 We have the artery of ductus deferens.

02:09 So the ductus deferens has a specific artery that goes towards it. We have the pampiniform plexus.

02:14 This is a venous plexus to help drain blood away from this region.

02:18 And we also have the testicular artery, taking blood to the testes.