[The diagnosis and partial nephrectomy of angiomyolipomas (author's transl)]

Renal angiomyolipoma is not a malignant tumor, and it is therefore to be treated only conservatively. The difficulty in distinguishing it from carcinoma nearly always leads to total nephrectomy. The study of the selective renal arteriogram enables preoperative diagnosis of angiomyolipoma even when not associated with tuberous sclerosis, and a partial nephrectomy. The arteriographic signs are: aneurysmatic images of the main vessels the neoplastic vessels with a helicoid course or arranged as bunche of grapes, their frequent anastomoses, the slowness of bloodflow in the angiomatous vessels and finally the mosaic picture during the nephrographic phase.