Kidney is an important organ of body which acts as excretory organ that maintain water and electrolyte balance of body and act as endocrine organ also. Kidney is a retroperitoneal organ, situated in the posterior abdominal wall beside vertebral column and extends from T12 to L3 vertebra. In fresh state, kidneys are reddish brown and surrounded with adipose tissue. Right kidney is slightly inferior then left kidney. Left kidney is little narrower and longer then right kidney, lies nearer median plane. Each kidney is bean shaped length 11 cm, breadth 6cm and thickness 3cm approximately. The average weight is 150 gram approximately. Kidney are characterized by circular and thick upper pole and narrow and thin lower pole. The lateral border is convex while medial border is concave with hilum that consists of renal vein, renal artery, and pelvis of ureter  anterio –posteriorly.¹

Morphometric studies has significant clinical importance, because many diseases like systemic diseases, urinary tract diseases, congenital anomalies, neoplasia , micro and macro vascular diseases in which kidney size changes seen. Many diseases where kidney require surgical treatment like renal transplants ,abdominal aorta aneurysm repair, urological procedure ,angiographic intervention, nephrotomy , nephrostomy , calicoraphy , partial nephrectomy etc. The presence of excessive numbers of renal arteries results in technical limitations in kidney transplantation.²  

So the increasing frequency of renal diseases and the increasing demand surgical intervention underlines the need for research aimed at a better knowledge of the morphometric parameter and its renal blood supply with its variations, in the kidneys.

Aim and objectives

Aim- Morphometric evaluation of right and left cadaveric kidney.

Objectives- Study the morphometric parameters of cadaveric kidney.

Morphometric studies has significant clinical importance, because many diseases like systemic diseases, urinary tract diseases, congenital anomalies, neoplasia , micro and macro vascular diseases in which kidney size changes seen. Many diseases where kidney require surgical treatment like renal transplants ,abdominal aorta aneurysm repair, urological procedure ,angiographic intervention, nephrotomy , nephrostomy , calicoraphy , partial nephrectomy etc. The presence of excessive numbers of renal arteries results in technical limitations in kidney transplantation.² So the increasing frequency of renal diseases and the increasing demand surgical intervention underlines the need for research aimed at a better knowledge of the morphometric parameter and its renal blood supply with its variations, in the kidneys.

The data will be collected in a predesigned format.

Study design: It is a cross sectional, observational study.

Study period: 24 months (for data collection and analysis)

Study setting: -Dissection Hall of Department of anatomy.

Study sample: - formalin fixed 40 kidney(20 right side and 20 left side)

Specimens will be collected from cadavers which are used for dissection purpose for under graduate student of Govt. Medical College, Akola.

Parameters for evaluation: length, breadth, thickness, weight of both kidney

The two kidneys lie outside the peritoneal cavity close to the posterior abdominal wall, on each side of the vertebral column. Each of the two kidneys is a bean shaped structure. The rounded, outer convex surface of each kidney faces the side of the body, and the indented surface, called the hilum is medial. Each hilum is penetrated by a renal artery, renal vein, nerves, and a ureter, which carries urine out of the kidney to the bladder.²

 The kidneys tend to be of the same dimensions and general configuration, the size depending on that of the individual. The exception is that in newborns, the size of the kidney relative to body weight may be as much as three times that of the adult. The kidney of the adult male is about 12 cm in length, 6 cm in width, and 4 cm in thickness and weighs about 150 g; that of the female is slightly smaller, with a weight of around 135 g.³

The anterior surface of the kidney is rounded, whereas the posterior surface is flatter. The lobulations seen on the surface of the kidney in young children are reflections of the interlobar septa or renal columns of Bertin that mark the divisions between the lobes. A deeper, longitudinal groove (the white line of Brodel) is seen anterior to the plane of the greater curvature. It marks the major division between the anterior and posterior row of pyramids and the corresponding rows of calices. Because the arteries do not follow the pattern of the calices this depression is not an indication of the so-called avascular plane. ^4-9

Renal agenesis, is often associated with defects of the other derivatives of the duct, in males shows single kidney with a genital abnormality including absence, hypoplasia, or cyst formation of the seminal vesicle, vas deferens, and ejaculatory ducts. In the female, genital anomalies are frequently associated with renal agenesis because of the close developmental association of the müllerian duct with the wolffian duct at the urogenital sinus.^10-14

Twenty two adult cadavers were studied for morphometric analysis of kidney and its arterial supply. As shown in table. 1, among 22 cadavers studied, 18 (81.81%) cadavers showed normal kidneys and 4 (18.18%) showed morphological variations. 

Table 1: Prevalence of variation in the kidney morphology

Table 2:  Unilateral and bilateral variations of the kidney

As shown in table 2, among 4 cadavers (18.18%) of variations, 3 (13.63%) cadavers were having unilateral small kidney and 1 (4.54%) showing bilateral small kidneys.

Table 3:  Measurements of the Right and Left Kidneys

As shown in table.3, values for the parameters measured according to the right and the left side; Average length, breadth, and thickness of right kidney was 8.39 cm , 4.85 cm, and 3.6cm respectively and weight was 104.51gm. Whereas, that of left kidney average length, breadth, thickness was 9.25 cm, 4.7cm, 4.02 cm respectively and weight was 125.6 gm. Among study population smallest kidney found to be a left kidney with length of 5.7 cm, breadth 3.3 cm and thickness 2.5 cm with weight of 35.7 gm. Smallest right kidney shows length 6.3 cm, Breadth of 3.5 cm and thickness of 2.4 cm, with weight of 37.7 gram.

In this study 22 cadavers kidneys were studied, among these 18 (81.81%) cadavers showed normal kidneys and 4 (18.18%) showed morphological variations. Measurements in our study of kidneys were, average length, breadth, and thickness of right kidney was 8.39 cm, 4.85 cm, and 3.6cm respectively and weight was 104.51gm. Wherever, that of left kidney average length, breadth, thickness was 9.25 cm s, 4.7cm, 4.02 cm respectively and weight was 125.6 gm. Among study population smallest kidney found to be a left kidney with length of 5.7 cm, breadth 3.3 cm and thickness 2.5 cm with weight of 35.7 gm. Similarly in previous study Satheesh Naik et al studied the measurements of kidneys and observed that weight and dimensions of left kidney were greater than the right kidney^15-20. Barton EN et al showed in a ultra sound sonographic study of 49 randomly selected healthy adult Jamaicans to establish a guide for renal 92 dimensions in the population. There was no difference in width between right or left kidneys in the group as a whole or within either gender²¹. Okoye I. J et al studied the renal lengths of 200 adults with normal renal to create normative values of renal length for the locality and to correlate them with some anthropometric parameters. The ranges of normal kidney length obtained were 8.3 -12.8 cm and 8.0- 12.5 cm for the left and right kidneys respectively. The mean renal lengths of males were slightly higher than those of females²². Renal length assessment by ultrasound is considered as an important factor in clinical assessment of kidney disease and healthy donors. Raza M et al determined renal size by ultrasound in adults without any known renal disease wherein the mean renal length on right side was 10.16cm, renal width 4.27cm, and parenchymal thickness 1.44 cm. On left side, mean renal length was 10.27cm, width 4.76cm, and parenchymal thickness 1.51cm. Mean renal volume on right was 99.8 cm3 and on left was 124 cm3. Left renal size was significantly larger than right in both genders. Gebrehiwot M et al conducted a prospective study and examined eighty adult Ethiopian individuals for kidney size. The size of the kidney was evaluated by measurement of the length, thickness and width from intravenous urography (IVU) and found that the left kidney was longer than the right and the mean kidney length was greater in men than in women. Muthusami P et al in his study showed that the means of length, width and parenchymal thickness of all 280 kidneys of 140 patients were 9.65cm, 4.5 cm and 2.04 cm, respectively. There was a significant difference in parenchymal thickness between the right and left kidneys, while there was no significant right-left difference in length or width^23,24 This study revealed that around 4 (18.19%) cadavers included in study were having small size of kidney. Among those unilateral small kidney was seen in 3 cadavers(13.63%) and bilaterally small kidney was in in 1 cadaver (4.54%). In previous study by Shambharkar S. B. showed small kidney in 05.05% of cadavers among 99 cadavers included in study, which shows that incidence of small kidney is higher in present study and this might be due to small sample size available for present study.²³

The results suggest that there are a large number of anatomical variations in the morphometric. Unilateral small kidney was most common morphometric variation followed by bilateral small kidney. This knowledge should serve in preparation for interventions, such as live renal donation, vascular reconstruction, renovascular hypertension, urinary outflow disturbances, varicocele or radical nephrectomy. Preoperative renal imaging is necessary and should be carried out prior to operative techniques to avoid unintentional renal trauma. Knowledge of these variation can be utilized in various fields of medical sciences i.e Anatomist, Radiologists and Surgeons for better clinical understanding and outcome.

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