Urogenital sinus

Urogenital sinus of a female embryo in week 8.5 to 9 (from Gray's Anatomy )

The urogenital sinus ( urogenital canal ) is an embryological precursor structure of various urinary and sexual organs . In the human embryo there is no delimitation of the anal and urogenital canals up to the 5th week of development ; one speaks of a cloaca . In the 5th week of development, the cloaca is divided into two cavities by the urorectal septum growing cranially onto it :

• Urogenital sinus (urogenital canal)
• Anorectal canal

From the urogenital sinus develop:

• in both sexes: urinary bladder , urethra (in men only partially)
• in men: prostate (prostate gland), bulbourethral gland (Cowper's gland), utriculus prostaticus
• in women: vaginal epithelium , glandula vestibularis major (Bartholin's gland), glandula paraurethralis (Skene glands), glandulae vestibulares minores
• in both sexes the raphe perinei

literature

• Alfred Sigel, RH Ringert: Pediatric urology. 2nd, completely revised edition, Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg a. a. 2001 ISBN 978-3-540-64764-5 , Chapter 1: Embryology of the urogenital tract ( full text ).
• Raimund Stein, Rolf Beetz, Joachim W. Thüroff: Pediatric urology in clinic and practice. 3rd edition, Thieme, Stuttgart / New York 2012, ISBN 978-3-13-674803-9 , p. 440 ff. → Section 37, Urogenital sinus and anomalies of the female genitalia. ( Full text ).