Renal artery aneurysm in a cadaveric kidney transplantation.

A 44-year-old haemodialysis patient was admitted for a cadaveric renal transplant. The donor renal artery (from a 38-year-old female who died of a subarachnoid haemorrhage) was found on dissection to have a thinwalled saccular aneurysm, measuring approximately 10mm in diameter (Figure 1) which was ressected with end-to-end branch reanastomosis. The kidney functioned well, with no complications at the time of writing. There was no suggestion that this was either an inflammatory or mycotic aneurysm. Saccular non-atherosclerotic aneurysms have been reported occasionally in the literature and do not present a contraindication to transplants if they can be successfully resected [1,2]. In Japan, where marginal kidneys are used for live donations, atherosclerotic renal arteries, including those with aneurysms, have been reconstructed with varying success prior to renal transplantation [3,4]. Further investigation of donor details are underway to determine if there was any underlying reason for the presence of the renal artery aneurysm.