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The '''ridged band''' is a band of highly innervated wrinkly [[skin ]] just inside the tip of the [[foreskin]]. The term ''ridged'' is used to describe the area instead of the more commonly used term ''wrinkled''. It has, especially in regard to [[phimosis]] (and preputioplasty), been called '''preputial ring''' or '''phimotic ring''', ''ring'' being analogous to ''band'', referring to the shape, and ''preputial'' meaning ''pertaining to the [[Foreskin|prepuce]]''. More particularly, it refers to the transitional area from the external to the internal surface of the prepuce, or foreskin. 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's corpuscles]] or Krause end-bulbs.
The nerve endings in the ridged band are stimulated by deformation of their capsules. Deformation of the capsules may occur by pressure, by stretching of the foreskin, or by the [[Gliding action| rolling or gliding of the foreskin]] during sexual activity.
Because of its location, the ridged band is invariably excised if a male is circumcised.
The late [[John R. Taylor]], MB, Ch.B., MRCPEd, {{FRCPC}}, a British-Canadian pathologist and biomedical researcher who practiced medicine at the [https://www.hsc.mb.ca/ Health Sciences Centre] in Winnipeg, MB, first used the term "ridged band" instead of "wrinkly [[skin]]" and described the ridged band at the ''Second International Symposium on Circumcision'', organized by [[NOCIRC]] in San Francisco, 1991, after examining the foreskins of 22 adults obtained at autopsy. The mean age was 37 years, range 22–58. The prepuces were studied grossly and histologically. His research was later published by the ''British Journal of Urology'' in 1996.<ref name="taylor1996">{{TaylorJR LockwoodAP TaylorAJ 1996}}</ref>
==Structure==
Taylor (2007) commented:
<blockquote>
The range of functions of the ridged band remains uncertain but it is deeply corrugated, rich in distortion-sensitive [[Meissner's corpuscles]] and subject to the movement of muscularised shaft [[skin ]] during sexual intercourse. It now seems that the concertina-like ridged band might be reflexogenic as much as fine-touch sensitive. Initial study (J.R.T. unpublished) indicates that the real importance of the ridged band to sexual intercourse lies in an ability to trigger a reflex contraction of muscles responsible for ejaculation.<ref name="taylor2007A">{{REFjournal
|last=Taylor
|first=John R.