So in our discussion of the testes we talked about one of the main support systems in terms of that
and that's going to be the scrotum now there are a few layers that we want to talk about when we
think about it where you typically think of it as almost like a skin sack and that's exactly
there is what we refer to as scrotal skin and scrotal skin is going to have a lot of things
associated with it it's going to be hair baring it's going to have sebaceous or oil glands as well
as sudoriferous glands as well and specifically when we're talking about those sudoriferous or
sweat glands these are going to be those apocrine sweat glands that are going to produce
smell produce odor also what's unique in terms of or what's specific we want to talk about with the
skin is it's going to be highly pigmented as well and in comparison to other areas of the
body now deep to the skin you're going to have your subcutaneous layer this isn't really going
to consist of fat like you would have in most subcutaneous layers it'll be a very small amount
and by very small I mean very small amount of fat in this region but really what I want to talk
about is this dartos muscle so you're gonna have this dartos muscle that's going to form
and be within this subcutaneous layer and dartos muscle is going to be a smooth muscle so
it's going to be sympathetically innervated and what happens when the dartos muscle contracts
is that it's going to contract and kind of move up the scrotum okay and this will do so as a in
terms of reflex associated with really cold environment and we'll talk about that in a
bit more specifics as well now very closely associated to the dartos muscle is the
cremaster muscle and we'll talk about this one in a bit more detail when we talk about the
spermatic cord because it's going to really be surrounding that spermatic cord but it's going
to have a very similar role in terms of when it contracts based on coming into contact with some
type of cold environment that's going to allow for the testes to kind of ascend and get closer
to the actual body now one other thing we want to note here within the scrotum right kind of down
the the medial portion is what's referred to as the medium raphe and this is going to be almost
completely avascular so in terms of any type of incision that needs to be made in the scrotum this
is often an area where you can safely avoid any type of vascular supply and as we discuss with
the testes this is going to be suspended within the sperm at or by the spermatic cords and those
spermatic cords are going to have a portion of it that's also located within the scrotum
so we're looking at an image here in terms of the scrotum you can see that the skin is going
to be a bit more a bit more highly pigmented in this region now you don't see very clearly
in terms of this individual a median raphe which would be right down the middle here but you can
kind of see in terms of this elevation of the skin in this region where the spermatic cords
are entering in entering into this region here all right so what what is going to be
the main function of the scrotum well obviously we're gonna have support for the testes both by
that skin as well as the subcutaneous layer but really importantly it's going to play a big role
in terms of the regulation of the temperature of the testes in order for spermatogenesis to occur
spermatogenesis works best in terms of being at a certain degree about two to three degrees celsius
lower than body temperature so it's one of the the main reasons why the testes are located outside of
the body and referred to as external genitalia so that location plays a big role and then that dartos muscle and cremasteric muscle when they contract if they are interacting with any type
of cold environment that will allow for not only the scrotum to contract and kind of move superiorly
but as well as the spermatic cord as well which is actually suspending the testes now there is a very
rich supply to the scrotum so not only what's going to eventually supply that spermatic cord
in the testes but the actual skin and subcutaneous layer itself you can have branches of the internal
pudendal which is going to be a branch of your internal iliac your inferior epigastric which
is going to be your external iliac a branch of your external iliac artery and femoral artery is
also the larger branch of the external iliac in terms of innervation you're going to have
contributions both from the lumbar plexus in terms of your ilio-inguinal and your genitofemoral
as well as your sacral plexus so a very rich innervation and arterial supply in this region
now as we discussed in terms of the discussion for the testes we know that the testes are going
to form within the abdomen or they're going to develop within the abdomen and then descend
eventually into the scrotum and typically that happens around seven months but in certain cases
that can actually not occur it actually will not descend into the scrotum and if this does
occur bilaterally that can have some very serious implications because it will stay within the body
so this subject to the higher temperatures that you would have in the body as opposed to within
the scrotum where you're about two to three degrees lower temperature in the scrotum now
often even if an individual is born without a complete descent of the testes typically that
will happen spontaneously around three months or up to a year generally if it has not done so some
type of surgical intervention can play a role in order to allow for infertility not to occur from
the descent not occurring so we've talked about the scrotum now now we're going to talk about the
specifics in terms of the spermatic cord not only in terms of the coverings but as the contents