The Blood Supply and Drainage of the Testes
The testicular (spermatic) artery descends in the cranial border of the spermatic cord to supply the testis; it becomes highly coiled as it reaches the testicle and is surrounded by a complex of small veins that comprise the pampiniform plexus.
This intricate arrangement is called the testicular vascular cone and is the means by which heat exchange is enabled between arterial and venous blood. The temperature difference has been measured at 2-6°C. The testicular artery passes along the attached surface of the testis, giving rise to branches to the testis and the epididymis. It turns around the caudal pole of the testis and passes back along the convex ventral border of the testis. Its course over the testis is flexuous, and it gives off branches that ascend and descend in a tortuous fashion over the whole surface of the testis.The arterial supply of the scrotum is provided by branches of the external pudendal artery, and the nerve supply originates from the second and third lumbar (third and fourth in the dog) nerves with a small contribution from the preputial and scrotal branch of the pudendal nerve.
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