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Pelvic kidney

Case contributed by Ke Chen
Diagnosis certain

Presentation

Incidental finding on MRI requested for liver evaluation.

Patient Data

Age: 70 years
Gender: Female
mri

Unascended left ectopic kidney in the pelvis.

Although the pelvic kidney was not imaged on axial slices, we suspect that the left renal artery originates from the aortic bifurcation.

Annotated image

The red circle in the first (coronal) image outlines the left pelvic kidney.

The red circle in the second (axial) image shows the likely take-off of the left renal artery at the level of the aortic bifurcation.

Case Discussion

Pelvic kidney is a rare anatomical variant due to failure of the kidney to ascend during fetal development. 

It can be associated with other congenital urogenital anomalies.

Blood supply to pelvic kidneys is highly variable, mainly due to it retaining its fetal blood supply. Single, dual and triple supply have been reported originating from the aortic bifurcation, the common iliac and the internal iliac arteries.

Knowledge of these structures is helpful for patients undergoing abdominal surgery.

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