Four left renal arteries-a rare variant of kidney arterial supply

Abstract

We describe the arterial supply of a human kidney harvested post-mortem from a 75-year-old female volunteer body donor. The kidney was analysed with contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT), and corrosion casting was used to reveal the kidney's angio-architecture. In the left kidney, we observed four renal arteries, each originating directly from the abdominal aorta. Three renal arteries, including the main renal artery, coursed through the renal hilum, and the fourth renal artery reached the lower kidney pole. The supply areas of each of the four renal arteries were analysed with a three-dimensional reconstruction of CT images and with corrosion casting. There were no clear boundaries between the areas supplied by the four renal arteries because their branches overlapped in most kidney segments.