ACCESSORY RENAL ARTERY AND ITS CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE

Knowledge of the existence of the aberrant renal arteries is important because they may be inadvertently damaged during renal surgery and their presence must be considered in evaluating a donor kidney for possible renal transplantation. Using conventional dissecting techniques, the posterior abdominal wall was dissected in a 45years old embalmed male cadaver in the gross anatomy dissecting laboratory of college of health Sciences Ayder Campus Mekelle University Ethiopia. Following the fine dissection, we noticed an aberrant right renal artery (accessory renal artery) originated from the abdominal aorta at the level of L3 vertebra, besides the normal renal artery that arises high up at the level of L1, L2. This accessory renal artery does not have a parallel course with the normal renal artery, it course upward and laterally to the inferior pole of the right kidney which it pierces, However there was no such observation on the left.