Pelvic kidney with an unusual blood supply: angiographic findings

Abstract

A right pelvic kidney was observed in a patient, who presented with hypertension. On angiograms, the left kidney was normally positioned and had a single renal artery, whereas the right pelvic kidney received three arteries, which arose from bilateral common iliac arteries and from ipsilateral internal iliac artery. The renal arteries from the ipsilateral internal iliac artery and the contralateral common iliac artery supplied the medial half of the pelvic kidney. In the present case, the blood supply from both the right and left sides appeared to be related to the medial position of the right pelvic kidney. As the incidence of unilateral renal ectopia is not extremely low, it is possible to encounter in a surgical or cancer treatment case. Variations in the positional anatomy of the kidney and its vascular supply are of clinical importance and our case illustrates a different kind of blood supply that a pelvic kidney may possess.