Ridged band

The ridged band is described as 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 first 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.

Taylor speculates that 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.

While these findings have never been validated the theory of an anatomical sexual function for the foreskin has become the cornerstone of the beliefs underpinning the anti-circumcision movement and as justifying the long and tedious process of foreskin restoration or "tugging".

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/