The pattern of the lymphatic drainage of the rat epididymis.

The rat epididymis is drained by separate lymphatics which emerge from the head, the body and the tail and join to form a single vessel which drains into the main testicular trunk. The pattern of lymphatic drainage is very similar to that of the arterial blood supply. There are anastomoses at various levels between lymphatics draining the testis and the epididymis. A final common pathway of the lymph drainage of the testis and epididymis towards the para-aortic nodes is described.