Study of prehilar branching pattern of renal artery in human cadaveric kidneys

Abstract

Abstract Background and aims: Kidneys are the pair of excretory organs situated retroperitoneally in the lumbar region on either side of vertebral column. Classically there is a single renal artery supplying each kidney which arises from abdominal aorta. Understanding the anatomy of vascular pattern of kidney is important for clinicians to perform renal transplantation, interventional radiological stodies. The present stody was undertaken for studying the prehilar vascular pattern of renal artery. Material and methods: Kidneys were collected from the department of Anatomy, Navodaya Medical College and Hospital, Raichur, Karnataka. Totally 84 kidneys were collected, the kidney containing full renal arteries from aorta were selected. The abnormal shaped kidneys were excluded from the stody. The blunt dissection was done to remove fat, loose connective tissue at the hilum and the artery was coloured with fabric red colour and photographed. Results: Out of 84 kidneys, single renal artery was seen in 72 cases and 12 kidney specimens showed double renal arteries. The single renal artery divided into anterior and posterior divisions. The anterior division was classified into three types of which, type I showed 43.06% incidence, type II showed 33.33% and type III showed 23.61% incidence. The posterior division was classified into two types of which type I showed 69.44% and type II showed 30.56%. Superior polar arteries were seen in 13.09% and inferior polar artery was seen in 5.95% cases. Conclusion : A sound knowledge of branching pattern of renal artery is important for urologists and radiologists for giving proper diagnosis and treatment. The present study mainly aims for prehilar vascular pattern of renal artery which may be usefull for renal transplantation and microvascular surgeries of kidneys.