The term ridged band is a description of an area/band of wrinkly skin toward the end of the foreskin. The term ridged is used to describe the area instead of the more commonly used term "wrinkled". It has, especially in regards to phimosis, been called a preputial ring. Ring being analogous to 'band', referring to the shape, and preputial meaning pertaining to the prepuce.
More particularly it refers to the "transitional area from the external to the internal surface of the prepuce," or foreskin.
John R. Taylor, MB, a Canadian pathologist and medical researcher, 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 (an organisation opposing infant circumcision) 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.
The term "ridged band" was subsequently used by Taylor in an anatomical and histological study of the foreskin published in the British Journal of Urology in 1996. Most or all of the ridged band is removed by male circumcision.
Famous quotes containing the word band:
“What passes for identity in America is a series of myths about one’s heroic ancestors. It’s astounding to me, for example, that so many people really seem to believe that the country was founded by a band of heroes who wanted to be free. That happens not to be true. What happened was that some people left Europe because they couldn’t stay there any longer and had to go someplace else to make it. They were hungry, they were poor, they were convicts.”
—James Baldwin (1924–1987)