ABSTRACT
Though anatomically related to the urinary tract, the prostate gland is, in fact, a part of the male genital system. Its clinical importance lies in that anatomical relationship. It sits in the posterior urethra, below the bladder neck and above the external sphincter. It occupies this position so as to be related to the ejaculatory ducts, which open in that same portion of the posterior urethra. The function of the prostate is to produce a secretion which, mixing with the seminal fluid from the adjacent ejaculatory ducts, constitutes the ejaculate. The normal prostate gland is small and, in urological terms, unobtrusive. It consists of an outer capsular and inner adenomatous part. With aging there is, in the majority of men, a variable, but inevitable, increase in the size of the prostate gland. This increase in size of the prostate gland – prostatic hypertrophy – may be either benign or malignant.
