[Multilocular cyst of the kidney (author's transl)]

The authors report the 67th published case of multilocular renal cyst, noting that half of the published cases concerned children. Left lumbar pain led to the discovery of a palpable mass of the lower pole of the left kidney visible at urography. At echotomography, alternation between dense and fluid areas made it possible to eliminate a solitary cyst. Renal arteriography was disturbing by virtue of the persistent slight peripheral hypervascularisation after the injection of angiotensin. Diagnostic doubt and the absence of any clearly defined limit between healthy kidney and pathological kidney led to nephrectomy. Histopathology : a thick capsule separated from the healthy kidney a series of cystic structures with no intercommunication between them, nor with the excretory system. Each cyst was lined with an endotheliform single layer epithelium with no renal tissue in the intercystic fibrous separations. The authors emphasise the difficulty of offering an opinion as to the aetiopathogenesis of this lesion which certain feel to be a dysplasia and others as a transitional form with nephroblastoma.