Traumatic renal artery dissection identified with dynamic helical computedtomography

Intimal tears in the renal arteries typically result from traumatic mechani sms that produce rapid deceleration. These injuries usually progress to sec ondary thrombosis of the vessel. When the tear leads to dissection with lum inal stenosis, early diagnosis and repair will preserve parenchymal functio n. Computed tomography has replaced intravenous pyelography as the radiogra phic study of choice for renal trauma. We present two patients with unilate ral delay of renal contrast enhancement during dynamic helical computed tom ography scan due to arterial stenosis from intimal dissection confirmed wit h arteriography. Both vessel injuries were successfully managed with endova scular stent placement. No previous description of this diagnostic strategy is reported in the literature.