Deferent duct at a glance
- Also called
- Vas deferens
- What it is
- The deferent duct (vas deferens) is a thick-walled muscular tube carrying sperm from the epididymis toward the urethra.
- Location
- It runs through the spermatic cord, inguinal canal and pelvis, passes over the ureter behind the bladder and joins the seminal vesicle duct to form the ejaculatory duct.
- Function
- It conveys sperm during ejaculation by strong peristaltic contraction.
- Body system
- Reproductive · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA19236 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- About 30 to 45 cm long.
- The ampulla is its widened terminal part.
Clinical relevance
Vasectomy cuts the deferent duct for contraception.
Structures next to the deferent duct
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Pectineus · muscular
- Obturator externus · muscular
- Obturator internus · muscular
- Lateral circumflex femoral artery · cardiovascular
- Dorsal artery of penis · cardiovascular
- Skin · skin
- Puborectalis · muscular
- Prostate · reproductive
- Seminal vesicle · reproductive
- Calcaneal branches of posterior tibial artery · cardiovascular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Deferent duct (FMA19236). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
- OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §27.1 Anatomy and Physiology of the Testicular Reproductive System. Rice University, 2022.
- Mitsuhashi N. et al. (2009). BodyParts3D: 3D structure database for anatomical concepts. Nucleic Acids Research 37, D782–D785. Data © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0.
Related anatomy
Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.