Morphometric and quantitative analysis of the afferent renal artery variation.

Abstract

Introduction: The kidney is a retroperitoneal organ that weight from 125 to 170 g in the adult men and 115 to 155 g in adult women. Irrigation kidney is characterized by the presence of large anatomical variability that may be influenced by ethnic and to a lesser extent by gender. Among the variations, there may be the presence of an accessory renal artery that is projected into the upper or lower end of the kidney. This research aims to observe the incidence of anatomical variations of the afferent renal artery and quantify both right and left kidney weight. Materials and Methods: We analyzed kidney weights and accessory renal artery variations in 48 adult kidneys of both genders obtained from Institute of Anatomy of the University of Severino Sombra. Subsequently, we compared the mean weights of kidneys in order to ascertain whether there was significant discrepancy between the left and the right kidney. For this, we performed the Student t test considering a P < 0.05. Results: The mean weight of the right kidney was 140.4 ± 22.6 g and the left was 148.8 ± 20.5 g. In 40% of right kidneys was observed anatomic variation with the presence of accessory renal artery. To the left kidney was observed a variation of 35%. Conclusion: We found that the accessory renal artery, when present, was more closely related to the end of the kidney especially in the right kidney.