Pelvic kidney with an unusual blood supply: angiographic findings

A right pelvic kidney was observed in a patient, who presented with hyperte nsion. On angiograms, the left kidney was normally positioned and had a sin gle renal artery, whereas the right pelvic kidney received three arteries, which arose from bilateral common iliac arteries and from ipsilateral inter nal iliac artery. The renal arteries from the ipsilateral internal iliac ar tery and the contralateral common iliac artery supplied the medial half of the pelvic kidney. In the present case, the blood supply from both the righ t 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 extreme ly 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 bl ood supply that a pelvic kidney may possess.