Ridged band

The ridged band is a band of highly innervated and vascularised tissue that is located just inside the tip of the foreskin of the human male near the mucocutaneous boundary. The ridged band was described by John R. Taylor, M.B.,Ch.B.,MRCPEd, FRCPC, a Canadian pathologist, and others in an article that was published in 1996 in the British Journal of Urology.

The ridged band separates the outer skin of the penis from the inner mucosa. The ridged band contains nerve endings arranged at the crest of rete ridges. The nerve endings resemble Meissner corpuscles or Krause end-bulbs.

The ridged band is invariably excised when a male is circumcised.

External links

• Taylor JR, Lockwood AP, Taylor AJ. The prepuce: specialized mucosa of the penis and its loss to circumcision. Br J Urol 1996;77:291-295. URL: http://www.cirp.org/library/anatomy/taylor/
• Cold CJ, Taylor JR. The prepuce. BJU Int 1999;83 Suppl. 1:34-44. URL: http://www.cirp.org/library/anatomy/cold-taylor/
• Taylor JR. Letter. Pediatrics News 2000;34(10):50. URL: http://www.cirp.org/library/anatomy/taylor2/
• The Ridged Band: Specialized Sexual Tissue. URL: http://research.cirp.org/index.html