Congenital anomalies of kidney and hand: a review

'Acro-renal syndrome' refers to co-occurrence of congenital renal and limb anomalies. The term acro-renal syndrome was coined by Curran et al. in 1972 though Dieker and Opitz were the first to report this phenomenon in three male patients in 1969. The common limb defects include oligodactyly, ectrodactyly, syndactyly or brachydactyly anomalies of the carpal and tarsal bones and the common renal anomalies observed are unilateral renal agenesis (URA), bilateral renal hypoplasia, ureteric hypoplasia, hydroureteronephrosis and duplication abnormalities. The acro-renal syndrome as originally described is rare, reported only in ∼20 patients in the international literature. We report a 23-year-old male patient with renal anomalies in the form of absent right kidney, left-sided vesicoureteric reflux (VUR) and skeletal anomalies viz short radius, absent first metacarpal ray in left hand and left undescended testis, consistent with Dieker's type acro-renal syndrome. Apart from the classical acro-renal syndrome, several anomalies of acro-renal patterns and the abnormal gene loci involved are described in the literature. This article is a comprehensive review of the development of kidneys, types of acro-renal syndromes, congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract (CAKUT), syndromes associated with combined limb and renal anomalies, and anomalies associated with URA.