Evaluation of Renal Artery Variations in Horseshoe Kidneys with Computed Tomography

Horseshoe kidney is the most common renal fusion anomaly, accounting for 90%. The study aims to explore the variations in the renal arteries of individuals with horseshoe kidney anomalies and contribute to the classification in the literature.

Computed tomography images of 145 individuals who had intravenous contrast-enhanced abdominal computed tomography for any reason and had horseshoe kidney anomalies were analyzed retrospectively, and the presence, origin, and number of accessory renal arteries were evaluated. Then, classification was performed according to the origin of the accessory arteries.

In 145 individuals, 44 different combinations of the accessory artery according to the origin and number were obtained. Most common accessory artery combination was type 2a (M1). According to our classification, 13.1% of the patients were type 1, 57.2% were type 2, 17.2% were type 3, 10.3% were type 4, and 1.4% were type 5.

The classifications of arterial variations in horseshoe kidney anomalies did not match each other in previous studies and did not comprise all patients because they were conducted with a small number of cases. A more comprehensive new classification was created in our study according to accessory artery origins with the help of previous studies.