Common Variations of Renal Vessels in Donor Kidneys

Bae, Seong Gon; Chung, Sung Kwang; Chang, Sae Kook

Abstract

To prevent extensive manipulation of the kidney and profuse bleeding, the exact information of the renal vessels is very important. On the basis of the intraoperative observations of 127 donor kidneys and preoperative angiography, we studied the renal vascular variations. Both kidneys had single renal arteries in 70.1% of the cases and multiple renal arteries were found in 29.9% of the cases. 89% of the cases had single renal arteries and single renal veins, and 4.8% of the cases were drained by multiple renal veins on operative field. Left renal veins had three branches, adrenal vein, gonadal vein and lumbar vein in 84% of the cases. Only adrenal vein and gonadal vein were identified in 13% of the cases. Anomalies of the IVC were identified in two cases. One case was left postrenal IVC and the other case was persisting left IVC. Right renal veins had no branch in 88.9% of the cases and gonadal vein was identi5ed in 11.1% of the cases in our study. In surgical procedures about the renal area, familiarity with common variations of the renal vessels and anomalies of IVC is very important for the surgeon.