VARIATIONS OF THE ARTERIAL SUPPLY OF THE KIDNEY IN MAN: AN ANATOMICAL AND ANGIOGRAPHIC STUDY

Abstract

Classically, each kidney is thought to have a single renal artery; however,numerous published studies describe common variations in renal vascularanatomy in which two or more renal arteries supply a kidney(Williams et aI., 1995; Ali~EI-Dein et aI., 2003; Bude et aI., 2003; Bordeiet aI., 2004; Khamanarong et aI., 2004). Although frequently described,there is still controversy regarding the naming of these arteries. There werenamed supplementary by Anderhuber and Weiglein (1992), multiple byChevrel (1994) and Khamanarong et al. (2004), accessory by Williams etal. (1995) and Goscicka et al. (1996), additional by Satyapal et al. (2001)and aberrant by Vilhova et al (2002). Bordei et al. (2004) named the supplementaryarteries entering the renal hilum as proper supplementary arterieswhile those entering the kidney at the upper and lower polar levels werenamed superior and inferior polar arteries, respectively. On the other hand,Debatin et al. (1993) named them supernumerary renal arteries and thehilar supernumerary arteries were classified as co-dominant if they weresimilar in size to the epsilateral main renal artery.