The corona of glans penis or penis crown refers to the rounded projecting border that forms at the base of the

glans The glans (, plural "glandes" ; from the Latin word for "acorn") is a vascular structure located at the tip of the penis in male mammals or a homologous genital structure of the clitoris in female mammals. Structure The exterior structure ...

in human males. The corona overhangs a

mucosal A mucous membrane or mucosa is a membrane that lines various cavities in the body of an organism and covers the surface of internal organs. It consists of one or more layers of epithelial cells overlying a layer of loose connective tissue. It is ...

surface, known as the neck of the

penis A penis (plural ''penises'' or ''penes'' () is the primary sexual organ that male animals use to inseminate females (or hermaphrodites) during copulation. Such organs occur in many animals, both vertebrate and invertebrate, but males do n ...

, which separates the shaft and the glans. The deep retro-glandular coronal sulcus forms between the corona and the neck of the penis. The corona and the neck are highly

vascularized Angiogenesis is the physiological process through which new blood vessels form from pre-existing vessels, formed in the earlier stage of vasculogenesis. Angiogenesis continues the growth of the vasculature by processes of sprouting and splitting ...

areas of the penis. The axial and dorsal penile arteries merge together at the neck before entering the glans. Small venous tributaries deriving from the corona drain the glans forming a venous retro-coronal

plexus In neuroanatomy, a plexus (from the Latin term for "braid") is a branching network of vessels or nerves. The vessels may be blood vessels (veins, capillaries) or lymphatic vessels. The nerves are typically axons outside the central nervous syste ...

before merging with the dorsal veins. The circumference and the underside of the corona are densely innervated by several types of nerve terminals and are considered by males an erogenous area of the glans. In some males, small skin-colored bumps, known as

pearly penile papules Pearly penile papules (PPP) are benign small bumps on the human penis. They vary in size from 1–4 mm, are pearly or flesh-colored, smooth and dome-topped or filiform, and appear in one or several rows around the corona, the ridge of the ...

, may appear at the circumference of the corona. Their appearance may vary from being hardly noticeable in some men to more prominent and well-defined in others. The papules are painless, harmless and non sexually transmitted. They usually appear in late puberty and are thought to disappear with age. Even though they do not require treatment, they can easily be removed, especially for aesthetic purposes.

Additional Images

File:Anatomy of the human glans penis.png, 3.Coronal sulcus 4.Corona of the glans File:Corona of glans penis comparison.png, The glans penis of an uncircumcised and a circumcised male File:Glans of Human Penis, Glans Highlighted.jpeg, Corona of glans penis

References

* Mammal male reproductive system Human anatomy Human penis anatomy {{genitourinary-stub