Abstract The glycogen content has been determined in needle biopsy specimens from the quadriceps femoris muscle in 21 patients with advanced, chronic renal failure, and in 12 patients with acute oliguric renal failure.The muscle glycogen content was inappreciably decreased in only two patients with chronic renal failure; in all the others it was within the normal range. The mean value in patients with chronic renal failure did not differ significantly from that in normal experimental subjects, or in hospitalized non‐diabetic patients without renal disease.All but two patients with acute oliguric renal failure had low muscle glycogen. The decrease was particularly marked in those patients whose renal failure had developed as a complication of major surgery. Both patients with normal muscle glycogen values had undergone dialysis.