Anatomical considerations on the place and formation of the renal veins

Our study on the venous vasculature of the kidney (the location and the formation of the renal veins) was performed on a total of 148 cases, using as working methods the dissection, the injection of contrast medium followed by radiography and the plastic injection followed by corrosion. Not all anatomical landmarks could be studied in all cases, each anatomical landmark being assessed on a number of different cases. The left renal vein formation was studied on 124 cases and we have found that the left renal vein may appear inside the renal sinus (intrarenal or intrasinusal) in 13.71 % of cases; in 17.74 % of the cases the confluence of the tributaries of the renal was at the medial border of the kidney, so juxtarenal and the most common form was the extrarenal vein (68.55 % of cases). The level of appearance of the right renal vein was studied on 122 cases, describing the following patterns: intrasinusal in 19.67 % of cases, juxtarenal in 27.87 % of cases and extrarenal in 52.46 % of cases.

The formation of renal veins was studied on a number of 114 cases, finding the following variations: in 56.14 % of the cases the renal vein formed from two venous trunks, in 38.60 % of cases from three venous trunks and in 5.26 % of cases from four venous trunks; we did not found cases of renal vein formed from more than 4 tributaries.