Treatment of arteriovenous angiomas of the kidney: surgical intervention and intra-arterial embolization.

Angiomas of the kidney are benign vascular dysplasias, which usually can be identified angiographically. If there are no clinical symptoms treatment is not necessary. In cases of hematuria and/or hypertension either intra-arterial superselective embolization seems to cause less functional loss of the renal parenchyma, whereas excision often leads to heminephrectomy or even total nephrectomy. Even if the angioma is initially not completely embolized followup study to 2 years has shown complete occlusion of the angioma, either owing to inflammatory reactions or redistribution of blood flow and diminished blood pressure. Two cases of renal angiomas are presented. Treatment consisted of intra-arterial superselective embolization in 1 case and surgical clipping of the supplying arterial branch in the other.