Surgical Importance of the Solitary Kidney

Abstract

DURING the past ten years 5 patients have been referred to the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital for renal homotransplantation because of unintentional surgical extirpation of all functioning renal tissue that in each case was anomalous in development. The renal anomalies encountered in these 5 patients were solitary fused pelvic kidney in 1 case, crossed fused renal ectopia in 2, and unilateral renal agenesis in 2 cases. In 1 of the latter a solitary normal kidney underwent traumatic rupture, and the other was a congenital solitary ectopic pelvic kidney. It is reasonable to assume that before renal homotransplantation became feasible other . . .