European Urology

Three-dimensional computer-assisted anatomic dissection from transverse immunolabelled histologic sections of a 15-wk-old male foetus. (A) Superior view of intrapelvic organs showing supra- and infralevator neurovascular pathways, (B) same view without the levator ani muscle (LA), the pudendal vessels (Pud.) and the venous plexus. The pudendal nerve (PN) provides somatic innervations (black arrows) to the urethral sphincter (US) before generating the dorsal nerve of the penis (DNP). (C, right lateral; D, anterosuperior, and E, left lateral views of the supralevator pathways), the inferior hypogastric plexus (IHP) is located lateral to the rectal wall. Fibres with a posterior trajectory innervate the rectum and the anal canal. From the anterior edge of the plexus, some fibres follow a trajectory posterolateral to the prostate (P), forming, together with the adjacent vessels (accessory pudendal arteries), the neurovascular bundles (NVBs). The corpus spongiosum nerves (CSNs) represent the distal course of the NVBs to the corpus spongiosum (CS). The fibres in anterior and anterolateral positions around the apex of the prostate follow the trajectory of the cavernous nerves (CNs) laterally and anterolaterally to the US, finally reaching the corpora cavernosa (CC).