Anatomical Study of Renovascular Variations: A Cadaveric Study from Central India

Abstract

Introduction: The knowledge of the accessory renal arteries has grown importance with the increasing number of renal transplants and other uroradiological procedures and for surgeons in view of nephrectomy and segmental renal resections. Renal artery variations include their origin, number and course. The most common is the presence of additional vessels. There may be several renal arteries or veins on each side or the renal artery may divide close to its origin into several branches. Aim and Objective: To study morphological variations and anomalies in the renal vasculature of Kidney. Material and Method: In order to facilitate the clinical approaches, we studied renal vascular pattern in 50 embalmed cadavers during the period of two years to establish the incidence of additional renal vessels in human cadavers and to understand the abnormalities of anatomical and embryological variations. Results: In our study we found, renal artery passing anterior to renal vein. Study also showed that accessory renal arteries arising from aorta are passing few to the upper pole, few to the lower pole unilaterally and few showed the same variation bilaterally. Early segmental branches of renal artery before entering the kidneys were also found in our study. Renal vein passing behind the abdominal aorta in one case and two or more renal veins at the hilum of kidney were also found in our study. Conclusion: Total renovascular variations were found in 42.42% cadavers. Detailed review of the literature shows that variations of renal arteries are more common than the renal veins, but in present study we found variations of renal veins (27.27%) more than the renal arteries(12.12%). A detailed knowledge of variations of renal vessels is obligatory for the safe performance of endovascular, laparoscopic, uroradiological procedures, renal transplants, clamping of vessels during partial nephrectomy and abate the complications in various procedures.