DOI: 10.36347/sjmcr.2014.v02i04.0024

Pages: 294-296

With the advent of laproscopic renal surgeries and donar nephrectomies,it has become important for the surgeons to understand the abnormalities or variations in the renal vasculature. Anatomical variations in the origin of the arteries in the abdominal area are very common. During routine dissection for teaching purpose, the posterior abdominal wall was dissected in a 50 years old embalmed male cadaver in the Department of Anatomy, Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences, Jalandhar. Following the fine dissection , we noticed that left renal artery was arising about 5 cm below the origin of right renal, at the upper level of L3 vertebra, from abdominal aorta and accessory renal artery was originating from aorta on left side about 1.5 cm below that of left renal artery at the lower level of L3 vertebra. However there was no such observation on the right. It is important to be aware that accessory renal arteries are end arteries; consequently, if an accessory artery is damaged or ligated, the part of the kidney supplied by it will become ischemic. These anatomical variations and anomalies are important to know before any therapeutic or diagnostic procedures are performed in the abdominal area.