Renal artery embolism: clinical features and therapeutic options

Renal artery embolism is an infrequent but important cause of renal loss. However, due to its rarity and nonspecific presentation diagnosis is often delayed and occasionally missed. Furthermore, proper therapeutic intervention is not well established and aggressive surgical management is often ill-advised. We review the literature and present 3 cases seen recently at our institution. Selective intra-arterial infusion of thrombolytic agents appears to be the most favorable treatment. The duration of occlusion does not necessarily correlate with the return of renal function, and the degree of collateral renal blood flow can be important.