Pudendal Nerve Identified on Sectioned Images of Female Cadaveric Pelvis.

OBJECTIVE: To provide an anatomical atlas made of serially sectioned images of a female cadaver that clearly demonstrated the pudendal nerve. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The courses of the pudendal nerve, internal pudendal artery, and internal pudendal vein were observed on the sectioned images of a female cadaver. The spatial relationship between the nerve and blood vessels was interpreted. RESULTS: Traces of the structures on the sectioned images showed that the sources of the sciatic and pudendal nerves were the fourth lumbar nerve to the second sacral nerve and the second to the fourth sacral nerves, respectively. As the borderline, the second sacral nerve showed a remarkable variation. The pudendal nerve gave off the internal rectal nerve proximal to the pudendal canal and it gave off the muscular branch to the urogenital triangle in the pudendal canal. It was divided into the posterior labial nerve and the dorsal nerve of clitoris distal to the pudendal canal. Inside the pudendal canal, the internal pudendal vein, internal pudendal artery, and pudendal nerve were arranged from superomedial to inferolateral order. In other words, the pudendal nerve was the farthest from the uterus. CONCLUSION: The sorted sectioned images with labels, accompanied by the schematic drawings, could serve as references for interpreting clinical images and conducting procedures related to pudendal nerve conditions.