Renal cell carcinoma presenting as spontaneous retroperitoneal haemorrhage.

On the basis of a spontaneous retroperitoneal haematoma in a 55-year-old female patient the diagnostic and therapeutical problems of such an emergency situation will be discussed. Due to the high incidence of malignant tumours as the bleeding source, radical surgery becomes the necessary treatment, which may be needlessly burdened by high operative risk in the acute phase. For that reason the mode of treatment chosen in this particular case was immediate embolization subsequent to arteriography along with consecutive extracapsular nephrectomy and removal of the haematoma.