Male vs. Female Branches of the Internal Iliac Artery

00:01 Now let's have a look at some important differences between the male and female branches of the internal iliac artery.

00:09 So here we can see looking at the male first of all.

00:11 Here we have the internal iliac artery.

00:14 It's giving rise to a superior vesical artery.

00:17 And these are coming off the umbilical artery before it becomes obliterated.

00:21 Here we can see the superior vesical artery supplying the urinary bladder.

00:25 We can see the ureters are in close proximity to the structures.

00:29 And here we can see the vesical artery run alongside the ureters to go and supply the inferior aspect of the bladder.

00:36 We can see the seminal vesicles on the posterior aspect of the base of the bladder, and inferiorly we can see the prostate.

00:43 Here we have the testicular artery, which is passing all the way down through the inguinal canal.

00:48 and that's going on to supply the testes.

00:51 As we noted in the male reproductive systems topic.

00:56 The epididymis is also receiving a branch of a testicular artery.

00:59 And here we have the testis as well indicated.

01:02 There's a complex blood supply towards the male reproductive organs as we can see in this diagram.

01:08 So here's the cremasteric artery.

01:10 And remember, the cremasteric artery is going to supply the cremaster muscle which forms that part of the spermatic cord.

01:17 It's coming from internal oblique muscle.

01:20 And remember, the internal oblique muscle in the anterior abdominal wall is going to supply by the inferior epigastric artery.

01:28 So as this cremasteric artery is coming and supplying the cremaster muscle, the origin of the cremasteric artery is going through the inferior epigastric artery as it takes its blood supply with it.

01:41 Here we can see the ductus deferens.

01:42 And here we have the artery of the ductus or the vas deferens, and as we noted earlier, that is coming directly from the internal iliac artery.

01:51 We also have the testicular artery and this is coming from the abdominal aorta, and the testicular artery passes through the deep inguinal ring, differentiating itself from the cremasteric artery we mentioned a moment ago.

02:03 But the testicular artery then passes through the deep inguinal ring, and runs all the way down to supply the testes.

02:09 And you could see on this diagram that those three areas: the cremaster muscle, the ductus deferens, and the testes are supplied by three different arteries, but surrounds there's anastomotic network that he shows there sufficient blood supply to this region.

02:27 Now let's have a look at the female reproductive organs.

02:31 Again, we can indicate the internal iliac artery here.

02:34 We can see it's giving rise to the uterine artery that's supplying the uterus.

02:38 And here we can see it's giving off its viginal branch which will merge and form an anastomosis with the vaginal artery to supply the vagina.

02:47 Here we can also see the ovarian artery and the ovarian artery similar to the testicular artery is going to be coming from the abdominal aorta.

02:56 The fallopian tube is also going to be supplied via the ovarian artery as it gives rise to tubal branches which we can see in this diagram here.

03:05 So here we can see the uterus and here we can see the vagina.

03:08 We've got the ovaries indicated as well.

03:11 So the uterus is going to be supplied by the uterine artery.

03:14 Here we see the vaginal branch coming off the uterine artery supplying the vagina as it anastomoses with the vaginal artery directly.

03:22 But we can also here have the ovarian artery going to supply the ovary.

03:27 And tubal branches are coming off the ovarian artery to go and supply the uterine or the fallopian tube.

03:33 There's going to be immense anastomosis around this organ coming from the ovarian artery, the uterine artery, and the vaginal artery, forming a tight anastomotic network throughout the ovary, uterus, and vagina.